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HOW 

SHE 

DID IT 

COMFORT 

OR 

ON $1^0 A YEAR 


BY 

MARY CRUGER 


New York: D. APPLETON & CO. 














































































































































































































































HOUSE THAT FAITH 







HOW SHE DID IT 


OR 


COMFORT ON $150 A YEAR 


7 

MARY CRUGER 



NEW YORK 

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 


,cs ^ 85 


Copyright, 1888, 

By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY. 


TO THE READER. 


Many books are written full of plausible 
theories and attractive schemes of living which 
look charmingly on paper, and fill many idle 
hearts with the rapture of a hoped for success 
in the emergencies of life. But they are often 
but vanishing dreams, incapable of realization, 
and only productive of cruel disappointment 
when essayed to be put in practice. 

The author of this little book wishes to say, 
as strongly and impressively as words can ex- 
press it, that its story is not merely founded on 
fact, but is an actual portrayal, step by step, of 
her own experience, her own wonderful success 
in carrying out a long cherished theory of com- 
fortable economy. The every-day life described 
is not a p* ♦etically imagined affair, but one that 
she has absolutely lived and gloried in. The 
unique home, the very woods and rocks, bear 
witness every day to the truths which the ‘au- 
thor has sought to reveal, as solving one of the 
difficult and perplexing social problems of the 
day. 

Montrose, 1888. 














































































CONTENTS 


CHAPTER PAGR 

I. — A Critical Discussion 7 

II. — Practical Housekeeping 22 

III. — Culinary Skill 33 

IV. — Deft Contrivances 43 

V. — Triumphs of Art 54 

VI. — New Enterprises 62 

VII. — Facts and Figures 71 

VIII. — Making Gardens and Muffins. . . . 82 

IX. — Festivity 91 

X. — Days of Illness 99 

XI. — Rest, and Plans for Winter . . . .110 

XII. — A New Success 116 

XIII. — The Spinning -Jacks 126 

XIV. — New Inmates 134 

XV. — An Overthrown Monarch .... 144 

XVI. — Financial Victory 154 

XVII. — Spring’s Gains and Comforts . . . .163 

XVIII. — Water-cresses and Wild Flowers . . . 174 

XIX. — Summer’s Joys 182 

XX. — The Haven where they would be . .190 

XXI.— Golden Dreams 200 




































% 





HOW SHE DID IT. 


CHAPTER I. 

A CRITICAL DISCUSSION. 

It is much easier to be critical than correct. 

Disraeli. 

What custom wills, in all things should we do’t 
The dust on antique time would lie unswept, 

And mountainous error be too highly heaped 
For truth to overpeer. — Shakespeare. 

“ It is a grave problem,” said Mrs. Nymscy- 
witch, very thoughtfully. 

“ An utter absurdity rather ! ” cried Lady 
Disdain, as she arranged her hat-strings with an 
air of lofty impatience. “ What human being 
could live on three hundred a year?” 

“ It would be literal starvation, my dear,” 
chimed in Mrs. El Dorado with gentle remon- 
strance in her tones. 

“ Still I mean to try it ! ” returned Faith 
Arden with steady resoluteness, as she clasped 
her hands earnestly together. “ In fact, I have 
already made all my arrangements.” 


8 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


“Then you had better unmake them.” 

“No! it is too late for that. The land is 
bought.” 

“ What ! that wild heap of rocks ? Who but a 
lunatic would dream of building a house in such 
a lonely, dreary spot ? ” 

“ If you would only be willing to consider its 
capabilities,” urged Faith with wistful pleading 
in her dark eyes. 

It tried her more than she was willing to 
admit, to have her friends so vehemently 
opposed to the one scheme of life she with 
her restricted resources had been able to 
plan. 

“ My dear child,” said Mrs. Nymscy witch, 
kindly, “tell us then what you find to tempt 
you to this unusual proceeding.” 

Somewhat cheered by those encouraging 
tones, Faith said with eager warmth : 

“ You have no idea what a beautiful place it 
really is ! With the rubbish and undergrowth 
cleared away, and the wild scrubby bushes 
removed, the daintiest little nooks, the prettiest 
vistas will show themselves — ” 

“ That only the eye of Faith can discover as 
yet,” interposed Mrs. Nymscywitch, dryly. 


A CRITICAL DISCUSSION. 


9 

Then as they all smiled at her little joke, she 
added : 

“ Well ! and then? You can’t live on nooks 
and vistas, you know.” 

“ I’m not so sure of that ! ” returned Faith, 
seriously, “ I will have a house the plan of 

which I have carefully studied out, in which 

% 

housekeeping shall become a practical delight, 
with no wearying or repulsive details. I will 
settle down to a life of pure enjoyment, into 
which the grosser elements of every-day exist- 
ence shall have little place. I shall have every 
comfort, unalloyed by household anxiety ; and 
the bread of contentment will be sweeter to me 
than the richest feast you have ever spread be- 
fore your guests in your own houses.” 

“ But bread ! my dear,” began Lady Dis- 
dain, who was rather literal in her limited com- 
prehension of Faith’s meaning. 

“ I shall have more than bread ; I shall have 
all reasonable needs of soul and body duly sup- 
plied,” said Faith, her eyes shining, as a little 
flush crept over her face. 

“ You really can’t do it on three hundred a 
year,” interposed Mrs. El Dorado, practically ; 
“ unless you don’t mean to pay your bills.” 


10 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


“ Where then would be my freedom from 
anxiety ? ” returned Faith, laughing. 

“ But your house, dear child ! ” said Mrs. 
Nymscy witch, “you can’t build that out of 
your income.” 

“ No ! but a friend will lend what I need for 
that, on a mortgage, and I mean to save some- 
thing every year, to pay it off by installments.” 

“ Good gracious ! just hear her ! she talks of 
saving something out of that pitiful sum ! ” cried 
Lady Disdain, in genuine horror. “ And what 
will you do for furniture ? ” 

“ You know my share of that at the old 
homestead is almost enough to begin with ; and 
I have a few hundred dollars on hand to supply 
deficiencies.” 

“ But the ground — your acre of rocks, as I 
call it — you must have paid for it a great deal 
more than it was worth.” 

“ It cost two hundred and fifty dollars ; and 
I have still a balance left.” 

“Tell me, Faith!” said Mrs. El Dorado, so- 
berly, “ do you think there is one shovelful <pf 
earth on your whole domain?” 

“ Oh, yes ! several, I should think,” returned 
Faith, tranquilly. “ It really is a curious and 


A CRITICAL DISCUSSION . 


II 


very picturesque mass of rocks, rising abruptly 
from the ground about fifty feet on the west 
side, with a rapid inclination toward the east 
that does not leave an actual level anywhere. 
Still, in ail the crevices and broken edges a 
gradual accumulation of soil has formed, so that 
quite large trees stand in the deeper places.” 

“ Is it so bad as that ? I thought there was 
quite a grassy slope,” began Mrs. Nymscy- 
witch. 

“ In appearance, yes ; but it is very deceit- 
ful. The more it looks like solid earth, the 
surer it is to be far more solid rock.” 

“ I have the 'dimmest recollection of the 
place,” said Mrs. Nymscy witch. “Just driving 
once or twice hurriedly by, without having any 
idea I should ever be interested in it, I scarcely 
know anything at all of its aspect or dimen- 
sions.” 

“Let me refresh your memory,” replied 
Faith, taking a portfolio from the table, with a 
faint gleam of fun in her demure eyes. “ Here 
is a sketch of the domain taken one windy day 
in March, when I went over to select a spot for 
the house.” 

As the three heads bent eagerly over the 


12 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


paper, there was a moment’s dismayed pause, 
broken only by gasps of horror, sighs of gloomy 
foreboding, and half - breathed interjections of 
mingled regret and unwilling admiration. 

As a study of wild primitive forest -life, 
the sketch was a decided success. The gaunt 
branches that swayed so drearily before the 
March gale, the masses of dead leaves over 
which ridges of soiled snow yet lay, holding 
them imprisoned in their icy grasp, the broken 
tangled array of briers, and the unsightly debris 
of many long years of utter neglect, all made a 
picture that was dreary and unattractive indeed. 
The great mass of almost perpendicular rocks, 
stripped of their dainty summer array, with here 
and there a scraggy vine clinging like a huge 
lifeless serpent to the rough stone, inspired only 
a sense of their cheerlessness, and caused a 
shiver at the cold winds that seemed to dash so 
unavailingly against them. 

“ My dear child ! ” cried Mrs. Nymscywitch, 
at last, “ you must give up this wild plan. 
Where could you place a building here that 
would not blow off the rocks at the first high 
wind ? There wouldn’t be much to choose be- 
tween its toppling over the precipice on the 


A CRITICAL DISCUSSION. 


13 

one hand, or rolling head over heels down the 
steep slope on the other.” 

“ That did seem a difficulty at first,” replied 
Faith, tranquilly. “ I found at once it was alto- 
gether too breezy on the top there, so I chose 
a place under those big oak-trees, where it is 
more sheltered. In an emergency the house 
might be chained fast to the trees, you know.” 

“ What an idea ! I think I’d rather be 
dashed to pieces at once than to be rocked in 
that perilous fashion in such a forest cradle 
that would fall into fragments by degrees.” 

“ I don’t believe either danger will ever 
exist,” returned Faith, still smiling demurely. 
“ Now, here is another sketch, taken after the 
foundation was completed, which — ” 

“ The foundation ! ” cried all in a breath. 
‘‘You surely haven’t begun — ” 

“Oh, yes! why should I lose time? That 
much was done by the middle of April, and it 
looked so oddly at that stage of the proceed- 
ings, I took this view of it also.” 

“ But how it looks ! One end of it is buried 
in the ground, and the other stands out in the 
air with the most impertinent expression I ever 


saw. 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


14 

Faith let them study her sketch for some 
moments, and make all the comments they 
pleased unanswered. Then, taking from the 
portfolio a third paper, she laid it before them 
with fingers that trembled slightly with tri- 
umph, as did also her voice as she observed, 
quietly : 

“ But, in the end, you see, it doesn’t look 
so very badly.” 

In speechless surprise the fair trio gazed 
at this crowning token of Faith’s zeal and en- 
ergy. There was just enough in this new 
picture of the old rugged outlines, the piled- 
up rocks and huge trees to show it was indeed 
the same scene ; but how wonderfully changed ! 
Nature had done her part, bringing out with 
her magic touch the graceful foliage, the droop- 
ing, luxuriant vines, and the dainty carpet of 
wild flowers and soft mosses, while the sway- 
ing fronds of the ferns bent beneath the sum- 
mer breeze, and nodded sportively over the 
points of rock which had protected them so 
sturdily from winter’s icy blasts. But the 
wonder was in the changes wrought by the 
hand of man, usually such vandal touches be- 
side Nature’s creative work. The house, whose 


A CRITICAL DISCUSSION. 


15 


mere foundation looked so ludicrously out of 
place in the last sketch, was now a completed 
structure. Its long, low front peeped modestly 
out below the oak-branches, presenting already 
a cosy air of comfort and seclusion that found 
attraction even for the worldly gaze that now 
so intently regarded it. 

“ But, Faith,’' at length exclaimed Mrs. 
Nymscywitch, opening her lips with a sort of 
gasp, so profound was her astonishment, “you 
naughty, treacherous child ! Have you really 
done all this without a word ? ” 

“ I told you I had made my arrangements,” 
began Faith. 

“You’ve made them with a vengeance, I 
think. Why, the very ground is metamor- 
phosed ! Where is the bank in which one end 
of the foundation had buried its nose so uncom- 
fortably ? ” 

“ I had that cut down as far as 1 could to 
fill in at the other corner. Then, in leveling 
the bank on the road in front, and making that 
flat space which the drive encircles, I found 
material enough for a very satisfactory grading 
around the house.” 

“But tell us about the house,” interrupted 


1 6 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


Mrs. El Dorado, eagerly. “ It looks quite 
pretty there in the picture.” 

“ It is just as pretty in reality,” returned 
Faith. “ Here is a plan of it, if you care to go 
into details.” 

“ Of course we do ! But is it really so 
large ? Thirty-five feet is a broad frontage.” 

“ It is only twenty-four feet deep,” replied 
Faith. “You see, I could not sacrifice any of 



Ground Plan. 

A, arch ; D, doors j D D, double doors ; w, windows ; c, chimnies. 


my oak-trees, so I contrived a house that would 
just fit in among them.” 


A CRITICAL DISCUSSION. 


17 

“Well, let’s see this wonderful plan,” said 
Mrs. Nymscy witch. “ I like the shape of the pi- 
azza very much, and that bay-window just saves 
it from looking like a district - school house.” 

“ What a cruel speech ! ” exclaimed Faith, 
pretending to look indignant; but she knew 
her old friend too well not to detect her kindly 
approbation despite her words of criticism. 

“ The bay-window belongs to the parlor, I 
see, and opening from that is your library, with 
the entrance-hall and dining-room in the middle 
of the house. And this long room running back 
the whole depth of the house you call your bed- 
room. Surely you don’t mean to sleep there ! ” 
and Mrs. El Dorado’s face wore a look of utter 
consternation as she spoke. 

“ Where else should I sleep ? I have a 
prejudice against disguised bedrooms, that are 
called parlors or dining-rooms in the day-time.” 

“ But up-stairs — ” 

“ There is no up - stairs,” tranquilly inter- 
rupted Faith. 

“No up-stairs! Why, what can you do?” 

“ You must remember this house was chiefly 
built with borrowed money,” said Faith, grave- 
ly. “ It is entirely unfinished overhead, al- 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


18 

though it would only cost about two hundred 
dollars more to make three rooms there if they 
are ever wanted. But, you see, I can only 
sleep in one room at a time, and I prefer to 
use one on the first floor.” 

“ But what if burglars came ? ” 

“ Then I’ll be on the spot to protect my 
property. Half the time burglars escape while 
people are getting out their pistols and stum- 
bling down-stairs in the dark after them.” 

“ Imagine yourself chasing a burglar round 
with a pistol from one room to another ! ” cried 
Mrs. Nymscy witch, laughing till the tears ran 
down her cheeks, and yet glancing a little anx- 
iously at Faith’s unterrified aspect under the 
discussion. 

“ I hope I will succeed in keeping them out- 
side,” she said, simply. “ But tell me how you 
like my kitchen and its arrangements. You see 
a door from the dining-room opens into it. By 
the time we got round to this side of the house 
we were so high up in the air that I had the 
kitchen started about four feet lower. So a lit- 
tle flight of steps leads down into it, and on one 
side an open stairway goes up to the servant’s 
room overhead.” 


A CRITICAL DISCUSSION. 


19 


“ You will need a very tiny servant in these 
little rooms. Only ten feet by eleven, isn’t 
it?” 

“ Large enough for my needs,” replied Faith, 
“ and I have very little idea of having a servant 
at all, although I built the room in case I should 
find I wanted it.” 

“ Then you do mean to starve in good ear- 
nest ! ” cried Mrs. El Dorado, holding up her 
hands in horror, while tears of kindly pity stood 
in her eyes. 

“ Not at all ! I have come much nearer 
starving at tables that were overloaded with 
ill-cooked and uneatable food than I shall ever 
be when left to my own devices. I should be 
a rich woman this day if I had claimed a salary 
for teaching all the stupid servants whom I have 
drilled into fair cooks in the course of my exist- 
ence.” 

“ But to do it all yourself ! ” exclaimed Lady 
Disdain, with a virtuous sniff and an air of great 
distaste. 

“ It won’t harm or weary me,” replied Faith. 
“ Come and see me when I get settled.” 

“And when will that be?” 

“ I shall move in to-morrow.” 


20 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


"To-morrow? But it doesn’t look finished 
enough — ” 

“ Oh, fences and gates are easily put up, and 
some little touches inside can be added better 
when I am there to know just what will suit 
me.” 

“ Oh, you mad, foolish woman ! Do give it 
up, even now ! You can finish and rent it.” 

“ I prefer to live in it,” retorted Faith, 
firmly. “ I expect to sleep there to-morrow 
night.” 

“ Impossible ! ” all three cried in chorus. 

“ Not at all ! Carpets are already down in 
my own room and the parlor. I have a tiny 
stove ready for the kitchen, and it will take but 
a few hours to put everything in temporary 
order.” 

“ But what will you have for supper to- 
morrow night ? ” asked practical Mrs. Nymscy- 
witch. 

“ I shall take some fruit and sandwiches 
over for that occasion, and cook my first meal 
the next morning.” 

“ And the wherewithal for your kitchen 
fire ? ” 

“ Is already provided. While the work of 


A CRITICAL DISCUSSION. 


21 


building was going on, I found the workmen 
and my neighbors generally were kindly solicit- 
ous to help clear up my grounds by carrying 
off arms and baskets full of fragments and shav- 
ings ; so I hired a boy at fifty cents a day to 
excavate a sort of cellar under the house near 
the kitchen-door, and to collect all these spoils 
for firewood. Thus, I have enough to last a 
year at a cost of about five dollars.” 

“Well, I’m coming over very soon to take 
breakfast with you ! ” said Mrs. El Dorado, 
rising to depart. 

“ It might be prudent to bring it with you,” 
said Mrs. Nymscywitch, as she also rose. 

“ If we don’t find you a wasted skeleton, it 
will be a comfort,” observed Lady Disdain, 
lugubriously. 

But Faith only laughed as she bid them 
good-by. 


CHAPTER II. 


PRACTICAL HOUSEKEEPING. 


All the means of action — 

The shapeless mass, the materials — 

Lie everywhere about us. What we need 
Is the celestial fire to change the flint 
Into transparent crystal, bright and clear ; 

That fire is genius! — L ongfellow. 

Faith Arden moved into her house with 
somewhat unwise impetuosity, for she found 
the masons’ labors but barely ended, and a 
faint damp odor of lime pervaded the greater 
part of the building, which warned her to use 
every caution in so hastily occupying it. Her 
own room, however, was fairly dry; and with 
utmost efforts she accomplished its arrangement 
for her use that night, and got the kitchen stove 
put up, besides hunting up a few articles she 
would need in getting breakfast the next morn- 
ing. The parlor furniture had been hastily 
thrust in place, while the library and dining- 


PRACTICAL HOUSEKEEPING . 


23 


room were crowded with boxes, baskets, trunks, 
and other things for which as yet no place could 
be found. 

Weary to the last degree with her unwonted 
exertions that long summer’s day, yet triumph- 
ant over her success, and full of a keen sweet 
sense of content and restful peace, she watched 
the darkening sky as the twilight faded and the 
twinkling stars came out, seeming to smile in 
kindly encouragement upon her. Soon, know- 
ing how early must be her rising in the morn- 
ing, she retired to her room, wondering if any 
nervous sense of loneliness would indeed come 
over her in that utter solitude. But well-earned 
repose fell gently and at once upon her, weigh- 
ing down her drooping eyelids with a dream- 
less sleep, in which midnight terrors had no 
place. 

The carpenter, who still had many days of 
steady work before him in hanging sashes and 
blinds, as well as in putting finishing touches 
everywhere, was to come at seven o’clock ; and 
Faith rose briskly at six, hoping to complete 
her kitchen labors before his arrival. Simply 
putting on a light wrapper and slippers, she. 
hastened to light her fire and to put some water 


24 


HOW SHE DID IT, 


in a saucepan on the stove. Having accom- 
plished a bright blaze that flamed with a cheer- 
ing roar and crackle up the chimney, Faith re- 
turned to her room to complete her toilet ; and, 
after putting everything there in order, had the 
satisfaction, on again visiting the kitchen, of 
finding that the water was boiling merrily. In 
another moment, having ground some coffee, 
and put it in a little brown earthenware pipkin, 
she added enough of the hot water to make the 
quantity she wanted. She then stirred two 
heaping tablespoonfuls of oatmeal into the sauce- 
pan, and left both coffee and oatmeal to boil, 
while she arranged on a small stand in one cor- 
ner of the dining-room such breakfast array as 
she could manage to find. 

From the supply of food and groceries with 
which she had provided herself, Faith then ob- 
tained some rolls and butter, while from her 
pint of fresh milk, brought over the evening 
before by a brisk little farmer’s maiden, she 
skimmed cream enough to make both oatmeal 
and coffee doubly palatable. It was only half- 
past six when she sat down to enjoy this first 
relay of food, which was succeeded presently 
by two fresh eggs, which had been cooking in 


PRACTICAL HOUSEKEEPING. 


25 


the mean time. It may seem a simple breakfast, 
but everything was so fresh and daintily pre- 
pared, each article the best of its kind, and com- 
ing so briskly from the fire to greet the keen, 
healthy appetite that awaited it, that it is to 
be doubted if any breakfast in the world has 
been much more enjoyed. 

It was a struggle to find soap and towels 
among the wild disarray that reigned every- 
where, and the dish-pan for some moments very 
obstinately hid itself. But they all came to 
light at last, and, with the fresh supply of boil- 
ing water that awaited her, Faith had every- 
thing washed and put out of the way while 
yet the carpenter’s quick, active step was afar 
off. 

He was a cheery, pleasant fellow, one who, 
instead of being any restraint on Faith’s move- 
ments, could be called upon to help her when- 
ever she found anything too heavy or bulky 
for her own strength. 

Busily and blithely they both worked all 
that long day, Caspar intent on getting all the 
blinds in place to keep out the glaring sun- 
light, while Faith put down the carpet in the 
hall, and arranged the furniture there and in 


2 6 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


the parlor, so as to make the reception of 
chance visitors more comfortable. She had 
planned and sewed the carpets in advance, hav- 
ing enough of a fine, neat ingrain that was still 
in good order to cover all the floors. As the 
inner doors would usually stand open, she fan- 
cied having the same carpet throughout, not 
liking the patchwork appearance that a variety 
would exhibit. Her parlor soon presented an 
aspect of some comfort. The piano, with a 
comfortable sofa, three easy -chairs, a round 
center-table, a small stand, and several ottomans 
furnished the room very fairly. In the hall 
were only a hat-stand and a small side-table, the 
blanks where two chairs ought to have been 
looking at Faith with very mournful grimness. 
For the dining-room there were as yet only a 
side-board, a buffet, a round stand, and one very 
plain cane-seated chair, while the library, still 
more unfortunate, could claim but a desk and 
narrow side-table. In Faith’s own room an old- 
fashioned bedstead, with canopy and heavy cur- 
tains of crimson silk, trimmed with gold lace, 
held a conspicuous position, while a wardrobe, 
a wash-stand, and a bureau, with a rocking- 
chair, made up the sum of its furnishing. To 


i 


PRACTICAL HOUSEKEEPING. 


27 


balance the blanks everywhere were the heaped- 
up boxes of books and music, the trunks 
full of clothing and house -linen, the baskets 
of china, silver, and glass, and the huge 
packages of pictures and mirrors that stared 
Faith desperately in the face, and for many of 
which she could find no place at all. 

Some of them she consigned to temporary 
oblivion in the attic overhead, which was ac- 
cessible from the servant’s room by a few steps 
and a door, and where Caspar had made a 
rough flooring over part of it for this purpose. 
Others were piled up in the library, so that 
• by noon the dining-room was comparatively 
cleared. 

When Caspar had gone home for his dinner, 
Faith, glad of a moment’s rest, and not caring 
to prepare an elaborate lunch, or to make up a 
fire again, found a shady corner of the piazza, 
where, with her simple array of crackers, 
cheese, some fruit, and a glass of milk spread 
on a chair beside her, she gained refreshment 
for both body and mind, while she studied out 
her next enterprises. She was already zeal- 
ously tacking down the dining - room carpet 
when Caspar returned, and, when it was done, 


28 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


having with his help put the side-board and 
buffet in place, she began to rejoice that the 
hardest part of her work was over for the day. 
Unaccustomed to such violent and continued 
exercise at any time, and, above all, in this 
glowing June weather, she was glad of a com- 
parative rest while unpacking and arranging 
the silver and glass on the side-board, and hunt- 
ing up the little china she owned. It was a 
wearisome task even then, for vases and lamps 
and ornaments of all sorts had been packed with 
the more useful articles, and must now be put 
aside again as they made their undesired ap- 
pearance. 

Even more gladly than on the previous day 
did Faith hail the warning whistle which pro- 
claimed that Caspar’s day’s work was ended, 
and left her in the approaching coolness of even- 
ing to once more seek the kitchen’s tiny domain. 
She was honestly hungry by this time, and had 
too much pride and confidence in her culinary 
skill to hesitate an instant over the preparation 
of her dinner. Having with practiced house- 
wifely care made in advance all due arrange- 
ments for supplies, she now only needed to 
decide what to use. Everything was at hand, 


PRACTICAL HOUSEKEEPING. 


29 


and she could have got up quite a ceremonious 
meal had she chosen, but she wisely undertook 
only what w r as the least trouble. A piece of 
delicately broiled beefsteak, with some boiled 
rice, was all she cooked, making meanwhile a 
salad with some fresh lettuce, and preparing 
some peeled and sliced tomatoes with mayon- 
naise dressing. These, with a roll and a glass 
of wine, she arranged on the little table in the 
dining-room, and, after enjoying them with the 
hearty zest gained from her day’s hard work, 
she took her dessert of ripe, glowing straw- 
berries outside, and ate them leisurely under 
the cool shade of her magnificent oak-trees. 

Then gathering together the array of her 
tiny dining- table, Faith put all aside in the 
kitchen, wisely concluding that once a day, 
after breakfast, was often enough for the rather 
distasteful process of washing them, which she 
did not at all fancy. Still, she performed even 
this task daintily, liking to have each article, 
as it was restored to its place in the dining- 
room, shine with a polished cleanliness such as 
few servants’ hands ever bestow. Faith had 
some peculiar ways of performing this duty. 
She began with the knives, washing them, one 


30 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


at a time, in the hottest of water, cleaning each 
with brickdust, and drying and polishing it 
quickly, so that it shone like new steel again. 
Then came the glass and silver, that must be 
clear and bright beyond compare, while the 
china and the kitchen utensils were not the less 
carefully attended to for their humbler claims. 
She used a swab rather than a dish-cloth, hav- 
ing a horror of putting her fingers in hot water, 
and often added only some borax to the water 
to make it soft enough for due cleansing. 

The tiny stove did its work wonderfully, 
and with water from a pump close at hand 
within the kitchen, and a drain beside it to 
carry off all that was used, Faith’s kitchen 
labors were not so very heavy. She found 
there was, indeed, no space to spare, although 
a table and a refrigerator were all the furniture 
of the room besides the stove and pump. How- 
ever, Caspar made her a hanging safe out of 
some fragments of wood and a yard of wire- 
netting that triumphantly defied the innumera- 
ble ants- who came so inquisitively through 
every crevice, seeming to be trying to find out 
what this new departure among their wonted 
haunts meant. Then, with a set of shelves fast- 


PRACTICAL HOUSEKEEPING. 


31 


cned against the wall over the table, and hooks 
in every direction — even under the steps that 
led up-stairs — Faith found opportunity to make 
quite a display of the few utensils she had, and 
to note dolefully the very many she must yet 
procure. She could manage very comfortably 
without them by herself, but the meekest, most 
unpresuming servant that ever lived would have 
been rebellious under such restrictions. 

The pump was an especial comfort to Faith. 
Of course, it was rather hopeless to look for 
a spring on that bleak rock, although she 
shrewdly suspected even that would some day 
be discovered. In the mean time rain-water 
ought to be pure enough, and would do for 
most uses, but how to have a cistern? Near 
the kitchen -door persistent digging had re- 
vealed a diminutive pocket in the rock that 
would hold a barrel, or perhaps two of water. 
As blasting was impracticable, and a good deal 
of filling-up necessary on the steep slope at that 
side of the house, Faith had a cistern con- 
structed in the pocket, and built up above it to 
the level of the kitchen floor. Then, when the 
final grading was completed, this was entirely 
covered in, leaving a platform on top for venti- 


32 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


lation. It was very easy to have the water led 
that short distance through a block-tin pipe into 
the kitchen to supply the pump. 

Another experiment of Faith’s had been to 
have a small cellar, of three by four feet in size, 
and four feet deep, made in one corner of the 
kitchen at the time its foundation was laid. Be- 
ing constructed of bricks laid in cement, she 
believed it would be a cool place in summer for 
wines, vegetables, or other supplies, while in 
winter it would be an equally desirable refuge 
from frost, not only for these articles, but also 
for such tender plants as she might wish to 
keep through the cold months. 

Thus in the humble sphere of the kitchen, 
with Caspar’s ready help, Faith found each 
need quickly met, and soon its cosy comfort 
was very noticeable. But the greater wants of 
the main house, the recollection of those un- 
packed boxes and trunks above-stairs, filled her 
at moments with dire consternation. 


CHAPTER III. 


CULINARY SKILL. 

Who does the best his circumstance allows, 

Does well, acts nobly ; angels could no more. — Y oung. 

Faith had found it at first a slight trial to 
rouse herself so early, but she was already fall- 
ing into this excellent habit, and was up even 
before six the next morning, having a new en- 
terprise on hand. This was to make biscuit, as 
she had exhausted her small supply of rolls ; 
and she felt somewhat uncertain whether the 
oven would be hot enough to bake them in due 
time. As soon as she had set her coffee and 
oatmeal merrily boiling, she took a large cup 
of flour, stirred into it thoroughly half a spoon- 
ful of baking-powder and a pinch of salt, and 
then added milk enough to make the mixture as 
stiff as she could stir it. Dividing this with 
two floured teaspoons into six portions which 
she then placed in a buttered pan, and finding to 
3 


34 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


her relief that the oven was quite hot, she left 
the biscuit to bake, while she prepared a hash 
from the fragments of rice and beefsteak that 
had been left from her dinner. Thus, almost 
as early as on the preceding day, she com- 
menced her breakfast, the biscuit and hash 
being ready for her and smoking hot, by the 
time she had finished her oatmeal, and cream. 
Again, not having this time to seek for her dish- 
pan and towels, she accomplished the task before * 
Caspar arrived, although the accumulation of 
articles to be washed was so much greater than 
before. He glanced at her wonderingly more 
than once, as she wandered about the house 
rather disconsolately, surveying the dreary 
blanks where needful furniture was so conspicu- 
ously absent. Knowing that she must not in- 
fringe on her small income, and seeing how fast 
her little accumulation of ready money was 
melting away in meeting expenses that were 
imperative, Faith could only sigh and wish 
and regret, without hope of attaining the ob- 
jects of her desires. 

Caspar ventured at length to half question 
her as to the cause of her evident solicitude, 
and so elicited an expression of her wishes. 


CULINARY SKILL. 


35 


“Well!” he said, encouragingly, with his 
curious foreign accent, “ why trouble over 
that? There are many fragments here that 
you have no use for ; why not let me make 
what you want?” 

“ But could you ? ” she asked eagerly. 

“ Why not ? I was brought up to be an up- 
holsterer ; and can make many things in that 
line. I will make you a book-case and easy- 
chair for your library ; why not ? ” 

“ And all my other needs ! ” cried Faith, 
clasping her hands joyously. “ I will show you 
— I will make drawings.” 

“ No ! I can make them without drawings? ” 
he said. “ Let me finish first the molding round 
the door and window frames, and then, I will 
know what I have to use.” 

Enchanted with this prospect, Faith busied 
herself at once in unpacking her pictures and 
mirrors, and in dusting and touching them up, 
which she found was requisite in many in- 
stances. Then, when Caspar had finished hang- 
ing the doors and windows in the parlor, and 
had added the delicate cherry-stained molding 
to the walnut frames, that contrasted so well 
with their sombre hue, she made him put up the 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


36 

poles and brackets for her curtains and portieres. 
These she also unpacked and got ready, so that 
they could be hung as fast as their places were 
made ready for them. With heavy portieres of 
raw silk in the bay-window and in the doorways 
leading from the hall to the dining-room and par- 
lor, and also between the parlor and library, 
these rooms already assumed an air of greater 
decoration. Then, being shy of mounting the 
step-ladder while Caspar was there, yet unwilling 
to take him from his work for anything she could 
do herself, Faith availed herself of his absence 
at dinner-time to venture upon that somewhat 
perilous undertaking. Having previously 
studied out their respective destinations, Faith 
soon had all her pictures and mirrors hung, 
whose placing in position now indicated a new 
want. The chimney being nearly in the center 
of the house, and triangular in shape, presented 
a flat side to the dining-room, while cutting off 
the corners of the parlor and library. Here 
mantels were needed both for use and orna- 
ment ; and Faith, still seeking to obtain her 
wishes with due regard to economy, appealed 
to Caspar on his return to make these mantels 
for her out of some bits of board she had col- 


CULINARY SKILL . 


3 7 


lected for the purpose. Having among her odd 
stores some iron brackets that would do for 
their supports, this undertaking was quickly 
accomplished ; and the mantels thus improvised 
were next ornamented by Faith’s quick fingers 
with heavy macraml fringes, which were the 
handiwork of former days of busy idleness. 
Space now offered itself for many of the vases 
and other bric-h-brac that filled the boxes in the 
library ; and altogether Faith felt, when evening 
came and she viewed one empty trunk and two 
baskets, besides some half-emptied boxes as the 
trophies of her day’s work, that it amply repaid 
her for her unusual exertions. Her lunch had 
been got in rather a desultory fashion ; but hav- 
ing some of the biscuit left that were made at 
breakfast, and some strawberries yet remaining 
of the basketful procured the day before, she 
enjoyed it very much, making a punch by add- 
ing some sherry to the glass of milk, whose 
proper proportions had been diminished by 
using part of it for the biscuit. 

Faith decided, when Caspar departed at six 
o’clock, to work for another hour herself, as 
there were still nearly two hours of daylight, 
not only because it was cooler then, but many 


38 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


little things could be done more independently 
in his absence. It seemed to puzzle him in an 
amusing way to see a woman attempt work that 
was often almost beyond her strength ; and 
once, when Faith was lifting a door in her 
strong arms to put it in a different place, he 
stepped hastily to her aid, exclaiming : 

“ Stop ! stop ! you mustn’t do that.” 

She had laughed, and let him help her then ; 
but often afterward, when his back was turned, 
she had done far more difficult things. 

That day, dining an hour later, brought her 
a wondrous appetite, and her veal chop, that 
had seemed large enough for two when the 
butcher brought it, might easily have weighed 
a few more ounces and still have been entirely 
consumed. With it she had some green peas 
and asparagus; and, with her glass of sherry, 
and some strawberries for dessert, she felt so 
refreshed that, but for the growing darkness, 
she would fain have gone to work again. 

Faith was too cognizant of the importance 
of keeping up the health and strength, upon 
which her active labors made so severe a strain, 
to practice those absurd and more than useless 
economies of the table that so often disgrace 


CULINARY SKILL . 


39 


the homes of comparative affluence. She knew 
the wide difference between a sufficiency of 
nourishing, well-prepared food and the scarcely 
palatable waste that has neither the merit of 
healthfulness nor the advantage of inexpensive- 
ness. Her tastes were simple, her skill as a 
cook beyond question. Thus each article that 
found place upon her table was perfect of its 
kind, but not necessarily the most costly. Her 
coffee was the very best the market could pro- 
duce, but, being bought at wholesale in the 
city, cost less than the inferior article which 
the country stores contained. Kept closely 
packed and guarded from the air in tin cases, 
the quantity needed was ground at the moment 
of using, and being boiled for five minutes at 
the most in a close-covered earthenware pipkin, 
it retained its full fragrance and strength, and, 
with fresh cream, became a cup of refreshing 
and delight not to be surpassed. Faith would 
never use any metal utensil for making coffee, 
declaring she could always detect a flat metallic 
flavor about it. 

So it was with all her cooking enterprises. 
Never frying chops or steaks, but always broil- 
ing them over a bright fire, and adding the salt 


40 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


and pepper after taking them up, so as to pre- 
serve the flavor and juices, they were hot and 
savory to the utmost. Her biscuits were light 
and feathery, deliciously melting in the mouth, 
because they were daintily handled, being nei- 
ther solid with too much working and rolling, 
nor made more substantial by the mistaken 
addition of butter. When she made cake or 
dessert, which she rarely did, not caring much 
for either, the same skillful touch revealed it- 
self. For vegetables, especially those that re- 
quired cooking, Faith cared but little ; still, 
she knew how to prepare them so as to elicit 
their best qualities. She disliked to peel pota- 
toes beyond all other kitchen duties. Thus they 
found no place in the beginning of her house- 
keeping ; but, when new ones were in market, 
that could be washed only, and boiled or 
roasted “ with their jackets on,” then Faith 
would condescend to use them occasionally. 

It was not easy to plan in advance the exact 
cost of each meal, but Faith carefully noted the 
quantity and cost of each item, that she might 
ultimately calculate whether she were exceed- 
ing her modest allowance. She noted that it 
took just one ounce of coffee for her breakfast, 


CULINARY SKILL . 


41 


and an ounce and a half of either oatmeal, 
hominy, or cracked wheat. Then, in the form 
of biscuit, rolls, or muffins, about six ounces 
of flour were used. Two eggs, boiled, poached 
on toast, or made into an omelet, or else a chop 
or a hash made from the remains of the pre- 
vious dinner, or sometimes half a dozen fried 
oysters or a sweetbread or some liver, amply 
completed her breakfast, and varied the pro- 
gramme sufficiently. 

Her lunch was always unceremonious. Espe- 
cially during the summer months, she cared but 
little for food in the middle of the day, and sup- 
plies for that meal never entered into her cal- 
culations. There were always biscuit or muf- 
fins left from breakfast, and fruit or preserves 
at hand. Then, when an occasional spring 
chicken, after making two dinners, offered still 
some fragments already cooked, she would 
make a dainty salad of them with lettuce or 
tomatoes, and feel that she was feasting roy- 
ally. 

For her dinner in the evening, Faith was 
willing to take some trouble. It was her last 
task of housework, and she thoroughly enjoyed 
its preparation as well as its actual eating. With 


42 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


a dozen oysters, she would make a soup of half, 
and broil the others, or fry them, after dipping 
each in beaten egg and cracker-crumbs. Then, 
her chop or broiled chicken would follow, with 
such vegetables as she had provided ; and for 
dessert, fruit was always her preference. Nor 
were these courses troublesome to manage. 
Having everything in readiness, and her kitch- 
en so few steps away, the broiled or fried 
oysters would cook while she was taking her 
soup, and the rest of the dinner was ready when 
she had finished the oysters. And never was 
she tempted to dine in the kitchen for the con- 
venience of it, as many women would have 
done under like circumstances. No ! Faith 
Arden had queened it royally in the world 
in her past day of social triumphs, and here, 
in the solitude of her lonely home, she main- 
tained every observance of ceremony just as 
imperiously as though the world still looked 
on and applauded. 


CHAPTER IV. 


DEFT CONTRIVANCES. 

One gains courage by showing himself poor ; in that manner 
one robs poverty of its sharpest sting. — Thummel. 

Several days passed before Caspar was at 
leisure to make Faith’s furniture, as it was ne- 
cessary to finish first the molding throughout 
the house so as to know what would be left 
for its ornamentation. Meantime, Faith varied 
her other labors by collecting on the piazza the 
bits of board or plank that were scattered in 
every direction, and began to study the uses 
to which they could be put. Caspar laughed 
slyly to himself as he saw her, with knit brow 
and grave air, industriously measuring and cal- 
culating, as earnest and preoccupied as though 
a whole house was to be built from these frag- 
ments. But he was really surprised when he 
found how much her calculations simplified his 
labors. She only needed to point out the lines 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


44 

she had drawn on a board that was sixteen feet 
long and fourteen inches wide to show him how 
it was to be divided lengthwise in two strips of 
six and eight inches in width. Then the widest 
would make the sides and top of the book-case, 
which was to be six feet high and four feet 
across. The other strip would make four 
shelves, which, being narrower, would admit 
of the added ornament of a cherry molding on 
the edges. Three more shelves were made 
from some small pieces of board that Faith 
had found, so that, being so well planned, the 
book-case was put together in a very short 
time. Caspar’s ingenuity in adding various con- 
trivances, from moldings of different styles, 
gave the whole an aspect of beauty and com- 
pleteness that greatly delighted Faith. The 
combination of walnut and cherry was particu- 
larly effective ; and when Faith had tacked 
some turkey-red on the back, and Caspar had 
carried it to the position in the library destined 
for it, Faith could scarcely find patience to 
wait till the varnish was dry before bringing 
her books down to put on the shelves. 

Meantime, however, another somewhat simi- 
lar task was ready for Caspar. A board of the 


DEFT CONTRIVANCES. 


45 

same dimensions as the first was cut into 
two lengths of five feet, and three of two feet 
each. These were to make the uprights, top, 
and two shelves of a linen-press for Faith’s own 
room. Two more shelves were contrived from 
smaller pieces, and the whole elaborately orna- 
mented with molding. A turkey-red back was 
also added, besides an embroidered linen por- 
ttire, hung by brass rings on a pole, that was 
fastened on the edge of the overhanging top. 
This press Faith had measured so as to just fit 
between the outer door of her room and the 
front window ; and she was eager to arrange 
on its shelves her stores of house -linen, and 
thus get rid of another trunk. But, as the 
drying of the varnish must again be waited 
for, she turned her thoughts to her next great 
need, asking Caspar if he could make her a 
dining-table. 

“ Why not?” he asked, in his quaint way. 
“ I can make anything if you have the materi- 
als.” 

“ Not everything ! ” said Faith, laughing, “ I 
want a lounge for the dining-room too, and — ” 

“ Oh ! I’ve often made lounges,” he replied, 
tranquilly. “ It’s just a frame you want, with 


46 HOW SHE DID IT. 

springs ; and a bit of carpet would do for a 
cover.” 

“ But you must have hair to stuff it.” 

“ No ! moss is just as good, and much 
cheaper,” he said, cheerily. 

“ Well ! I’ll send for some moss and the 
springs, and you can make the table meanwhile. 
I’ll get some rollers, too ; enough for the table, 
lounge, and chair. You said you could make 
me a chair, didn’t you ? ” 

“ Oh, yes ! a chair is very easy. I will make 
all the frames now, and stain and varnish them, 
so they will be ready when the moss and 
springs come.” 

It was now Faith’s turn to be astonished. 
A few pieces of heavy plank that had seemed 
of no use whatever, were quickly contrived by 
Caspar’s skilled hands into the framework of 
both lounge and chair. Neatly and strongly 
put together, stained with the cherry stain, and 
varnished, they looked so promising of future 
comfort that Faith was in positive ecstasies 
over them. 

But the table, that needed three broad pieces 
of board for the top and leaves, presented diffi- 
culties that seemed insuperable. Still, Faith’s 


DEFT CONTRIVANCES . 


47 


fertile genius triumphed even here. The hall, 
having no windows, was gloomy, even though 
the inner doors usually stood open ; and Faith 
had procured glass for the upper panels of the 
outer doors to secure the more cheerful aspect 
she desired. Having these panels now care- 
fully removed and replaced by the glass, they 
made the leaves of the proposed table admi- 
rably, being unusually perfect, and scarcely half 
an inch thick. Then, recalling the thin back of 
an old picture, which having become warped 
had been discarded for a heavier back, Faith 
brought it forward as a possible top for the 
table. It was very thin, but beautifully veined ; 
and by being glued upon some narrow pieces 
of board, and thoroughly planed, it made just 
the desired surface for the center of the table. 
This was now soon finished, Faith finding 
among her odds and ends some tiny brass 
hinges to fasten the leaves on with. The table, 
too, was cherry-stained and varnished ; so that 
the piazza now presented quite an array of fur- 
niture in various stages of completion. 

While Caspar resumed his regular work, 
and Faith flitted about restlessly, contemplating 
her new possessions, a carriage drove up to 


48 


HOW SHE DID IT, 


the door, and Lady Disdain alighting, stood 
for an instant as though transfixed with aston- 
ishment at the scene. 

Faith, after a dubious glance at her fingers 
with their inevitable cherry stains, while one 
disfiguring splash showed itself on her dress 
also, came quickly forward, however, to wel- 
come her unexpected visitor. 

“ Have I been too impatient ? ” asked Lady 
Disdain, anxiously. “ I was so eager to know 
how you were getting settled, so fearful of the 
many discomforts I know you must be endur- 
ing ! ” 

“ I am always glad to meet my friends,” 
said Faith, rather gravely, “ and above all to re- 
lieve their anxiety about my welfare ; but 
really, I don’t see any occasion for alarm as yet. 
I’ve had a delightful time so far.” 

“ Ah ! but, my dear Faith, it is such utter 
madness ! Can I not persuade you even yet to 
give up this foolish experiment?” 

“ But why should I ? ” she replied rather im- 
patiently, “ I am living a life of my own choos- 
ing, one that suits my tastes and wishes exactly.” 

“ But with such bitter privations ; why you 
must almost starve — ” 


DEFT CONTRIVANCES. 


49 


“ Not at all ! ” and a flush of quick annoy- 
ance came over Faith’s countenance. “ I am 
exceedingly comfortable, I assure you. But 
come in, and see my curious domain. You are 
nearly my first visitor.” 

“ Am I ? Mrs. Nymscy witch was coming 
with me, but she was not quite well enough to 
ride so far, and made me promise to give her 
a faithful account of all your surroundings.” 

“ Be sure you do,” said Faith demurely, as 
she led the way ; “ don’t decry my poor little 
efforts at elegance, or whisper to that good 
heart your suspicions of the moldy crusts on 
which I am supposed to be barely maintaining 
existence.” 

“ But really, Faith — ” 

“ Really, I do assure you, I only once found 
one of my rolls was moldy ; and I didn’t eat it 
after all ; I managed to find some crumbs on 
which to subsist till* fresh supplies came. I 
always regretted the loss of that roll. It was 
my own fault, too, for leaving it in a damp 
place.” 

Lady Disdain sighed, and forbore to con- 
tinue the topic, having a dim idea that Faith 
was laughing at her, yet being too sincerely 
4 


5o 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


grieved over her supposed privations to re- 
sent it 

“Tell me!” she said, looking about her ea- 
gerly as Faith conducted her from one room to 
another, and paused before the new book-case. 
“ Is this something new ? I don’t remember it.” 

“It is so new that the sun has never yet 
set upon its beauty,” replied Faith. “ Caspar 
has been making it for me ; and I am only wait- 
ing till it is dry, to put my books in it.” 

“ Dear me ! why it is really quite nicely 
done. Still it is not as pretty as one I saw in 
the city yesterday. That was a trifle larger 
and made of ebony. It was not so very ex- 
pensive, considering the material. Why don’t 
you take a look at it?” 

“ No, indeed ! ” interrupted Faith, “ why the 
very trip to the city would cost more than this 
did.” 

“ Impossible ! ” 

“ It is so, nevertheless. The cost of the ma- 
terial and of Caspar’s time in making it do not 
amount to two dollars,” returned Faith, bravely 
meeting the faintly supercilious air with which 
Lady Disdain was regarding her. 

“Well! it seems to me,” said Lady Disdain, 


DEFT CONTE/ VANCES. 


51 


“ I’d rather go without things, and make be- 
lieve I didn’t want them, than put up with 
home-made makeshifts that are a deliberate 
confession of poverty.” 

“ Would you?” said Faith, quietly; but her 
eyes gleamed with sudden fire as she spoke. 
“ Now, I never make believe anything. If I 
want a thing, I propose to have it, if there is 
any way of contriving to do so ; and I am thor- 
oughly proud of the genius that in spite of pov- 
erty, in actual harmony with it rather, can make 
out of mere nothings the objects it knows how 
to create.” 

“ Dear me ! ” repeated Lady Disdain, look- 
ing somewhat disconcerted ; “ I didn’t mean to 
offend you, Faith.” 

“You haven’t!” answered Faith, more 
gently, feeling that only against a foe worthy 
of her steel was it worth while to brandish the 
weapon. “ But don’t think I mind being poor 
in mere money or money’s worth. It’s just a 
temporary inconvenience that doesn’t trouble 
me at all.” 

“ But why temporary ? Have you prospects 
then — ? ” 

“Temporary because my mind and soul 


52 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


must certainly outlive it. A trouble whose in- 
fluence can’t reach beyond the grave is surely 
a trifling one.” 

“ You’re a queer creature ! ” responded Lady 
Disdain, looking very bewildered as she turned 
to the parlor and subsided helplessly on the 
sofa. 

Faith pitied the poor soul’s limited capacity 
to comprehend her wayward speeches, and, 
having a keen sense of the duty a guest’s com- 
fort imposes, she now sought to soothe Lady 
Disdain’s perturbed sensibilities. In this she 
succeeded so admirably that when she rose to 
take her departure she was again all smiles and 
affability. 

“ Be sure to give Mrs. Nymscywitch a glow- 
ing account of my abode, and tell her to come 
as soon as possible to inspect it for herself,” 
said Faith, cheerily, as she stood by the car- 
riage-door, and aided Lady Disdain to duly 
arrange her voluminous draperies. 

“ At least, I won’t tell her about the roll or 
the book-case,” she replied genially. 

“Are those the worst features you have 
been able to discover? Well, tell her, then, 
that I will make and send her sketches of each 


DEFT CONTE/VANCES. 


53 

room in the house as soon as I have got them 
more completely in order.” 

Lady Disdain looked back half regretfully 
as the carriage drove off, and Faith thought- 
fully re-entered the house. Strong, patient, 
and courageous as she undoubtedly was, she 
could not help feeling a sense of vexation and 
depression as she recalled her visitor’s foolish, 
ill-judged utterances. They were too trifling 
to have any real weight, yet they could sting 
sharply enough for the moment. 


CHAPTER V. 


TRIUMPHS OF ART. 

’Tis much he dares, 

And, to the dauntless temper of his mind, 

He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valor 
To act in safety.— Shakespeare. 

While awaiting- the arrival of the springs 
and moss that were needed to finish the lounge 
and chair, Faith completed the inner decoration 
of the house by putting up red-linen shades in 
the windows, with curtains that were of lace for 
the parlor and library, and of cottage drapery 
for the dining-room and her own. It was curi- 
ous how her fertile genius contrived to utilize 
all the relics of her former life, and to make 
each seem to have been planned for just this 
present use. Her pictures and ornaments, too, 
fitted each in its new position with all the har- 
mony of design and coloring that the most care- 
ful study could have arranged. 


TRIUMPHS OF ART. 


55 


Meanwhile Caspar was ever busy with the 
thousand and one details that make the finish- 
ing of a house take nearly as long as its original 
construction. Fastenings for doors, sashes and 
blinds to be neatly adjusted took time that 
seemed out of all proportion with the thing 
accomplished. The outside painting of the 
house, which he had also undertaken, being 
very much of a universal genius, he accom- 
plished as weather and opportunity permitted, 
keeping the inside work for the many rainy 
days that followed upon July’s first fervent 
heat. 

Many bits of mending and renovating Cas- 
par also satisfactorily performed, doing little 
touches of cabinet-work and dainty veneering 
that were not only a comfort to Faith in that 
they were done just at the moment of need, 
but because they cost, done by his hands, less 
than half what would otherwise have been 
the case. 

So day by day the two industriously worked 
on, almost side by side, and the house took on 
new beauty each hour, till the completeness of 
its harmony and good taste fairly hid from 
notice the actual details, the half -worn ma- 


56 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


terials, and touches of enforced economy. 
Then, the materials they had waited for having 
arrived, Caspar proceeded with his upholster- 
ing undertaking, working in the open air under 
the friendly shade of the noble oaks, while 
Faith sat near, watching the process with 
breathless interest. 

“ How easy it seems ! ” she exclaimed, as 
Caspar with his long needle skillfully stitched 
the moss firmly in place over the springs that 
had been already secured, by the aid of his 
queer - shaped upholsterer’s hammer, to the 
frame that seemed so strong and solid. 

“ Everything is easy when you know how 
to do it,” he replied, sententiously, as his fin- 
gers pulled the fine twine tightly through after 
each stitch, and finally tied all the ends with 
the wonderful knots that would not slip, which 
Faith could never master. 

A raw-silk porttire, like those already in use 
within, which had not been needed for that pur- 
pose, made a neat rich covering for both chair 
and lounge. The fragments that remained 
Faith quietly put aside, and the next rainy 
day contrived a round cushion, which she ad- 
justed on the head of the lounge with some 


TRIUMPHS OF ART. 


57 

bows of ribbon, giving it an added air of ease 
and comfort. 

Can any one imagine the delight with which 
she now walked to and fro through the house, 
stopping to survey from every point of view 
her new acquisitions? She rejoiced in their in- 
expensiveness, as many another woman has 
been proud of the outlay of hundreds. She 
feasted on the outlines that had originated 
under her own supervision, and had been gov- 
erned by her own fancy, far preferring them 
to those that came with dozens just like them, 
from the factory. The very piecing of the 
cover of her cushion she enjoyed, tracing the 
seams absently with her fingers, and observ- 
ing how neatly they were sewed, how nice- 
ly she had matched the design. She took 
many unnecessary rests on the lounge when 
no one was by to notice the pretty folly of 
it, just to be sure it was comfortable, and the 
springs properly adjusted. The chair had 
been placed at her desk in the library, and 
of course was used whenever she had a let- 
ter to write, but many a time besides she 
would walk through the house to take a seat 
in it, professing to herself that she was tired, 


58 HOW SHE DID IT. 

or that it was so much cooler there than else- 
where. 

Oh ! how much less the rich and careless 
ones of earth would vaunt their cherished 
wealth, could they understand how many treas- 
ures the world contains that money can never 
purchase ! Faith’s lounge would have cost 
twenty or thirty dollars at an upholsterer’s ; the 
chair at least ten. Contrived as they were, 
they did not require an outlay of over five dol- 
lars for both. Yet to her own consciousness 
they far outweighed in value anything that 
could have been merely purchased. It was 
the joy of watching their rapid growth under 
Caspar’s hands, of meeting each need with some 
fitting supply out of her little store of house- 
hold odds and ends, which gave her a sense of 
independence that no wealth could have be- 
stowed. 

Now, carefully rearranging her rooms, Faith 
began, as opportunity permitted, to make the 
promised sketches for Mrs. Nymscywitch. The 
parlor and library were fairly complete, al- 
though many little improving touches could 
be added leisurely in the future. Besides a 
view of the parlor from the library-door, she 


TRIUMPHS OF ART. 


59 

also gave one from the west window, which 
included an out-of-door glimpse through the 
narrow window on the piazza, that she espe- 
cially liked. 

So many interruptions occurred, and every- 
day duties claimed so large a portion of Faith’s 
time and attention, that some days elapsed be- 
fore she accomplished the sketches of the li- 
brary taken from the dining-room, and of her 
own room from its outer doorway. There was 
also a delay of nearly a week, while Caspar was 
finishing the painting outside, and she was care- 
fully reviewing every detail of her in-door ar- 
rangements, and calling upon him constantly 
for final bits of work here and there. All the 
woodwork in the kitchen and servant’s room 
had to be painted, and some shelves put up in 
the latter. Then one of the round windows in 
the attic was made to open and shut at will, as 
it was intensely hot there in these sultry days. 

Next came two weeks during which Caspar 
was called off for work on his own house, that 
could no longer be deferred, and Faith con- 
sidered leisurely what else remained to be done. 
These delays resulted in one piece of good 
fortune. She had hesitated to make sketches 


6o 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


of the hall and dining-room where the dearth 
of chairs was so painfully conspicuous. While 
pondering this want, and wondering how she 
should meet it, she saw one day at an auc- 
tion - room three very rough - looking chairs, 
whose cane-seats were badly broken. She had 
not watched Caspar’s upholstering proceedings 
in vain, and, seeing a chance here that might 
be made available, she carelessly offered ten 
cents each for the chairs, supposing, at the 
worst, they were worth that much for kitchen 
use. To her surprise, the offer was accepted, 
and with great delight she found that a thor- 
ough scrubbing revealed strong, well-made oak 
frames, which were worthy of the ambitious 
plans she now formed for them. 

Zealously imitating Caspar’s more vigorous 
efforts, Faith contrived to arrange springs in 
each seat, to adjust what remained of moss 
around them, and to cover them with some 
bits of raw silk like that on her lounge. When 
she had administered a liberal coating of 
cherry stain and varnish to the chairs, all the 
bruises that had seemed so unsightly were 
entirely concealed, and they looked very well 
when placed in the hall and dining-room. It is 


TRIUMPHS OF ART. 


6l 


true they were very unusual in their appear- 
ance, but so were many other of Faith’s unique 
contrivances, and the general harmony of all 
was not materially disturbed. 

Now, with fresh zest, Faith resumed her 
sketching, and, in the comparative leisure of 
Caspar’s absence, she finished them, including 
even the kitchen, servant’s room, and attic. 
Sending them to Mrs. Nymscywitch, with an 
eager glowing account of all her busy, happy 
life, Faith earnestly entreated her friend to 
come quickly and see for herself how wonder- 
fully her dreams had been realized, and, mean- 
time, to believe implicitly in her utter peace and 
comfort. 


CHAPTER VI. 


NEW ENTERPRISES. 

Here are cool mosses deep. 

And through the moss the ivies creep, 

And in the stream the long-leaved flowers weep, 

And from the craggy ledge the poppy hangs in sleep. 

Tennyson. 

At a hundred odd moments during those 
long, bright summer days Faith would be flit- 
ting hither and thither over her wild domain, 
intent on studying its latent possibilities not 
only for improvement in aspect, but also for its 
increased usefulness. At the intervals when 
her light household duties, or the need to super- 
intend Caspar’s work, did not keep her in-doors, 
she was busy in the ambitious endeavor to make 
her grounds more closely approach a compara- 
tive level. From the slope of the higher ground 
in front of the house she took all that was possi- 
ble of its material without uncovering the rocks 
to utter bareness. Using this for filling in on 


NEW ENTERPRISES. 


63 

the other sides of the house, a much more tran- 
quil aspect was gained. The house no longer 
looked as if it would slip down the hill on the 
smallest provocation, but wore even an air of 
stability, as though conscious of the invincible 
protection the great oaks were capable of af- 
fording. Faith had ambitiously planted some 
flower-seeds in the earlier days of her sojourn 
here, which the rich soil had brought forward 
with unusual haste. From these, and from 
some house-plants that she had brought with 
her, she had now a modest array of bright-col- 
ored blossoms, which gave more of an expres- 
sion of order and cultivation to the grounds 
than all her other efforts. 

For some weeks there had been steadily pro- 
gressing the heaviest part of her out-door 
work — that of removing the steep bank and 
masses of rock which so narrowed the road 
along the front. The noise of blasting the rocks 
into fragments, and their being dragged by 
oxen to fill in the road at the foot of the hill, 
had tried Faith's nerves severely, and she was 
glad when it was over. Just why oxen have to 
be yelled at so continuously, and addressed in 
such extraordinary terms, she never could 


* 6 4 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


understand ; but, as driving them was one of 
the few things she could not do herself, she 
submitted as patiently and stoically as she could 
to the noise and discord. 

When Caspar returned, he found a great 
change had thus been wrought in the aspect 
of the place as he approached it. The road 
had been lowered about two feet, and widened 
by the addition of at least six feet. This, at 
the same time, took off the sharp edge of the 
overhanging bank, which was now rounded 
back and made of an even height of about two 
feet above the road, whereas it had formerly 
been four or five feet above it in many places. 
His first task was to make a fence to protect 
the grounds, so much more exposed now, from 
the encroachments of street cattle. This Faith 
contrived should be as light as was consistent 
with its purpose, that the view should not be 
obstructed, and, with double gates at each en- 
trance, another marked improvement was af- 
fected. 

Then, gathering together odd fragments of 
siding, some lath left by the masons, and a few 
bits of timber and boards, Faith suggested a 
summer-house on the brow of the slope, where 


NEW ENTERPISES. 65 . 

a very beautiful view could be had in every 
direction. 

“Not to cost much,” she said, anxiously, for 
she was beginning to have a terrible sinking at 
heart whenever she thought of the long roll of 
accounts she must some day look over and try 
to balance. 

“ No, that is easy to do,” said Caspar, reas- 
suringly. “A summer-house should be rough 
and rustic, and that means cheap, too.” 

And, in effect, it possessed thoroughly all 
three of these qualifications. Six slender cedar 
posts firmly fixed in the ground, with the bark 
appropriately left on, stood at the corners. A 
floor, hexagon in shape, and made literally of 
scraps, was managed from the odd bits of tim- 
ber and some hemlock boards. A seat ran 
round five sides, inclosed in lattice-work, and 
the roof was made of the pieces of siding closely 
fitted together, and then painted bright red, 
which made it look from a distance like a huge 
umbrella. Considering that its materials would 
otherwise have been used for firewood, it was 
certainly inexpensive enough, using scarcely a 
day of Caspar’s time. 

Fortunately for Faith’s fast narrowing re- 
5 


66 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


sources, Caspar had but a few more days’ work 
to do after finishing the gates and fence. It 
was mostly little odds and ends everywhere of 
unfinished work that the masons or the tinker 
had overlooked or neglected. When, finally, 
all was done, Faith drew a long breath of re- 
lief, for the constant strain of so much anxiety 
over the cost, as well as the necessity of the 
work, had been very wearing, although she felt 
it most of all when it was ended. Yet she 
laughed as Caspar gathered up his tools for a 
final departure, saying she would probably be 
ready to pull the house to pieces and begin 
over again before the year was over. This 
Caspar took as a good joke, and so, indeed, 
she half meant it; yet she could see already 
changes that in the future she would like to 
make, which would be conducive to both com- 
fort and convenience. He had not been gone, 
in truth, three days before Faith saw a new dif- 
ficulty before her. The kitchen floor, of new, 
soft wood, showed every spot and stain, were 
it only from a splash of water. Scrubbing it 
herself was impossible, and yet it would often 
need it, while to hunt up some one who would 
undertake it would be more trouble than it 


NEW ENTERPRISES. 


6 / 

was worth. Then a new enterprise brightened 
Faith’s eyes with fresh hope. She would paint 
the floors both of the kitchen and the serv- 
ant’s room with her own hands. Why not? — 
to use Caspar’s favorite expression. Having 
watched him so often at the same work, she 
felt she could easily manage the paint-brush, 
and even mix the paint. With three cents’ 
worth of yellow ochre, a sprinkling of Spanish 
brown, and half a gallon of oil, she accomplished 
a light coat of paint on the floors, which had 
the advantage over the usual process of being 
sufficiently absorbed by the wood to show its 
varied grain, and was the more enduring, as it 
would not readily scratch or wear off. 

Faith did this bit of work secretly and in 
much fear and trembling, taking the early 
hours of the morning for it, when no one was 
likely to come, and even then locking all the 
doors carefully to prevent a surprise. She 
got her hands and even her face marked and 
splashed with the paint, but that was a trifle 
when she realized how well she had succeeded. 
Assured of this, she proudly proclaimed her 
new accomplishment, and exhibited its proof 
to every new-comer with delight. 


68 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


Her visitors were, indeed, numerous and of 
all classes. Not even the tender anxiety of her 
old friends to be assured of her welfare sur- 
passed the attentiveness of neighbors who were 
less personally interested. Every one, with 
more or less kindly motives, was eager to see 
all the curious features of her home, and to 
offer or seek advice in innumerable household 
questions. Petty disasters came sometimes to 
try her nerves and patience, but she had a 
ready ingenuity in finding remedies for each. 

Once, just as her breakfast was ready, and 
she had taken up her pipkin of boiling coffee, 
an unexpected voice made her start and turn 
suddenly toward the door. Intending to put 
the coffee down as she did so, she miscalculated 
the space between her and the stove, and let go 
of the pipkin, only to hear it crash upon the 
floor. Not only was the fragrant coffee spilled 
and wasted, which her frugal soul was ready 
enough to lament, but, after answering the ap- 
plicant, who came on some idle, vexatious er- 
rand, Faith found a tiny hole broken in the side 
of her favorite pipkin, the sight of which tried 
her courage and temper sorely. 

She grimly took her breakfast without cof- 


NEW ENTERPRISES. 


69 

fee that time, as everything else was ready, 
but she cared more for the broken pipkin than 
the loss of a dozen breakfasts. She had had it 
so long that she had an affection for it, and it 
was not easy to replace it. 

Faith was still ruefully making her little 
moan over this misfortune when a kind-hearted 
neighbor came in with a blithe greeting. Tell- 
ing her dolefully of the injured pipkin, Faith 
tried to frown at the ominous gleam of merri- 
ment in the kindly eyes, only to join heartily 
herself in another moment in a good laugh at 
the accident that had so provoked her. It was 
a notable thing to Faith that it was from her 
visitor’s fertility in expedients, rather than her 
own, that a remedy was found. Her sugges- 
tion of mending the break with plaster of Paris, 
mixed with water into a stiff paste, was at- 
tended with a perfect success. It hardened at 
once, fitting accurately into the fractured edges, 
and the pipkin was ready for use again in less 
than an hour. 

These first days of solitude in which, hav- 
ing no longer any workmen to superintend, she 
was free to occupy herself according to the mo- 
ment’s caprice, gave Faith an impatient rest- 


7 ° 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


lessness that sent her wandering afresh amid 
all the odd nooks and corners that still re- 
mained untouched of her little property. In 
front alone, and immediately surrounding the 
house, had she accomplished a comparatively 
orderly pruning and grading. On the north 
and east, however, the wild luxuriance of Na- 
ture’s handiwork still reigned. Huge rocks 
and precipices, half concealed by the dense un- 
dergrowth, peered threateningly forth in the 
most unexpected fashion, while at the foot of 
the slope a tiny stream trickled and babbled 
along over mossy pebbles, revealing here and 
there dainty water-cresses and the trembling 
ferns, that swayed gracefully with every breath 
of air. 

Here Faith would scramble about for hours, 
getting her feet wet and her dress wofully torn 
and disordered, but enjoying with keen zest 
this little breathing-space between so many 
weeks of hard work and the renewed efforts 
which she knew were still before her. 


CHAPTER VII. 


FACTS AND FIGURES. 

O polished perturbation ! golden care ! 

That keepst the ports of slumber open wide 

To many a watchful night. — S hakespeare. 

And now the dread first day of October had 
arrived, on which Faith had appointed to her- 
self to make a statement of her accounts for the 
three months which had passed since she had 
commenced her novel experiment in house- 
keeping. All her items of every sort of expen- 
diture had been carefully noted down to the 
smallest particulars ; and at this crisis, in which 
she could form a pretty clear idea of her suc- 
cess, if it were not indeed an utter failure in- 
stead, she fairly trembled as she sat down to 
commence her calculations. She began by clas- 
sifying her accounts ; making one statement of 
the cost of buying and improving her grounds 
and of building the house; another of pur- 


72 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


chases to complete its furnishing ; a third of 
household supplies for actual consumption ; and 
a fourth, at thought of which her lips wore 
an uncertain, piteous smile, was to give her 
outlay for personal needs in the way of 
dress. 

The first step had been the purchase of the 
land : 


The original acre of rocks cost $250 00 

An adjoining bit, bought afterward as desirable for the 

sake of including all the east slope to the stream. . . 25 00 

The bricks for the foundation and chimneys cost 44 00 

Drawing the same from yard, and other teaming of ma- 
son’s supplies 37 90 

Lumber and lime 415 00 

Mason’s bill 119 50 

Carpenter’s bill 205 75 

Doors, windows, sashes, and blinds 131 50 

Locks, hinges, nails, etc... 29 87 

Paint and oil 21 70 

Tinner’s bill 47 Si» 

Molding, piazza posts, fence strips, brackets, etc 35 00 

Insurance 4 50 

Grading, blasting rocks, and clearing ground 76 55 


$1,444 08 

This sadly exceeded Faith’s first estimate of 
the cost of her proposed home, and nearly ex- 
hausted her slender supply of ready money. 
With the aid of a loan of $700, for which she 
gave a mortgage, she contrived the payment of 


FACTS AND FIGURES. 


7 3 


each bill, however, grimly resolving next time 
she built a house to profit by her present dole- 
ful experiences. She had seen many points 
where mistakes had been made, owing to the 
blundering, willful or otherwise as it might be, 
of the workmen, and the evil had to be remedied 
of course, at her expense. She had seen much 
reckless waste and mismanagement, much spoil- 
ing of good materials, many an hour idled away 
in wrangling and arguing, all to her loss. Had 
she been a man, and so could have superin- 
tended the work day by day, many dollars 
might have been saved. If there ever was a 
“ next time,” she was quite inclined to make a 
sort of frolic of it ostensibly, and, sitting under a 
tree with a book or some work for nominal 
occupation, to watch ever)* step closely and 
sharply. 

Meantime, she could only make a virtue of 
necessity, and pay her bills soberly, with a rare 
word or two of commendation for the few who 
had served her faithfully ; and in a grim silence 
that boded no good to the delinquents in the 
future, for those whose short comings, or actual 
dishonesty she saw with perfect distinctness. 
By actions rather than by words or idle dis- 


74 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


puting over items, would she some day show 
her sense of the advantage now taken of her, 
and to which she seemed to submit so uncom- 
plainingly. 

The friend who lent the $700 which enabled 
her to pay all these sums, was also considerate 
enough to fix the interest at five per cent, and 
to give her the privilege of paying off the prin- 
cipal in such installments as she should find 
practicable. 

The interest on the mortgage, with the 
taxes, which were about ten dollars, made what 
was equivalent to a yearly rental of forty-five 
dollars. 

Faith had a sufficient store of house-linen, in 
fairly good order, brought from the old home- 
stead to meet all her requirements for the 
present. Of silver, china, and glass, she also 
had nearly all she needed ; and of uten- 
sils for kitchen use, as long as she had no 
servant to arbitrarily demand greater conven- 
iences, what she had needed but slight addi- 
tions. 

Thus her statement of purchases for such 
purposes during these three months was quite 
brief. These were : 


FACTS AXD FIGURES . 


75 


A dozen of small dishes and plates $i 75 

A door-mat, broom, dust-pan, and brush 1 15 

Stove and furniture polish, with brushes, etc 55 

Hatchet, trowel, rake, saw, and small tools 1 80 

Three chairs, moss, gimp and rollers 3 75 

Broiler, kitchen towels and dish 45 

Piano-tuning, house-cleaning, and grass-seed 5 80 


$15 25 

Faith did not feel quite sure, as she contem- 
plated these two accounts, whether the grass-seed 
ought not to have been put in the first state- 
ment, and the piano-tuning and house-cleaning 
reserved for the next. Still, it was such a novel 
and perplexing affair to her experience, that she 
concluded to let it stand as it was, especially as 
the making of the lounge, table, and other things 
had been included in the carpenter’s bill, and 
part of the materials came indefinitely some- 
where in those for lumber and moldings, to say 
nothing of the paint and varnish used. 

“ It doesn’t make much difference,” she solilo- 
quized, “as long as all the money to pay for 
them comes out of one pocket.” 

The third statement took much longer to 
write out, as it included the many trifling de- 
tails that had made up the sum of her daily ex- 
penses. The one especial joy to her palate of 
the whole day was her coffee for breakfast ; and 


;6 HOW SHE DID IT, 

Faith placed that article, with some dainty pen 
flourishes at the head of her list; not giving 
one sigh of regret to the fact that two pounds 
of coffee a month is a very liberal allowance for 
one person’s actual consumption. 

The account stood as follows: 

Six pounds of coffee $i 50 

Two pounds of oatmeal. 30 

Four pounds of wheat-germs 60 

One pound of hominy 5 

Forty-six quarts of milk 2 30 

Seventeen pounds of beef, thirteen pounds of veal, seven 
pounds of lamb, six pounds of chicken, two pounds of 

liver 8 15 

Thirty oysters 30 

Six dozen eggs 1 50 

Twelve pounds of butter 3 00 

One gallon of California sherry 3 00 

Twenty-five pounds of flour 75 

Twelve baskets of small fruits 1 20 

Two half-baskets of peaches 1 25 

Seven pounds of sugar 48 

Rolls 45 

Vegetables 2 35 

Firewood 50 

Washing and ironing 6 00 

Kerosene, matches, bath-brick, sapolio 65 

Baking-powder, salt 30 

Pepper, oil, mustard, vinegar 45 

Pears, grapes, and apples 65 

Crackers, cheese 37 

Rice 10 

Soap 5 

$36 25 


FACTS AND FIGURES . 


77 


There were, of course, among these a few 
items, such as condiments and matches, of 
which the unused portions would slightly lessen 
the next three months’ expenses. But Faith 
shook her head drearily over the sum total. 

“ It never will do ! ” she murmured, discon- 
solately. “ I shall soon need coal for steady 
fires through the winter, and in the long even- 
ings will be at twice or thrice the expense of 
light than has been necessary hitherto. How 
shall I economize further ? I can not do without 
my wine. Even if I used ale instead, it would 
cost nearly as much. One thing may be possi- 
ble. With the help of the little pockets of rich 
soil around me, I may need to buy no fruits 
next year. I will plant trees and vines at once, 
and so meet that difficulty; but I don’t see any 
other way of saving, unless I do my own wash- 
ing ; and really that isn't possible. Oh ! for 
some bright Yankee to invent a machine for 
laundry work ! It would be far more valuable 
than a sewing-machine. A lady can do her 
sewing herself, but not her washing. And yet, 
why not? wherein has she less ability than a 
servant? Are not the bones and muscles of 
her hands the same ? Isn’t it pure imagination 


and conventional nonsense that draws this 
ridiculous line? 

Then, with slightly flagging zeal, Faith began 
to look for items of personal expense among her 
memoranda. 

“ Ah ! ” she breathed, after a long inspiration 
of relief. “ This is better ” : 

There were : 


Two pieces of tape $ 14 

One pair of slippers 1 00 

One skein of knitting worsted 20 

One pair of silk gloves 45 

$1 79 


“ Now that is respectable ! ” said Faith, re- 
garding the figures triumphantly. “ That makes 
amends for the other discouragements. Now 
let’s see how I stand financially,” taking a fresh 
sheet of paper and noting down the items. 


Three months’ income $75 00 

Taxes and interest (three months) $11 25 

House-furnishing (three months) 15 25 

House-keeping (three months) 36 25 

Personal expenses (three months) 1 79 64 54 

$10 46 


“ Then I have $10.46 toward paying off the 
mortage!” reflected Faith, “Well! I am glad 
there is any balance at all, under the circum- 


FACTS AND FIGURES . 


79 


stances ; and as I probably won’t have any 
kitchen furnishing to do for some time, what I 
save there will more than pay for my coal.” 

Among her goods and chattels Faith had 
stoves for each side of her triangular chimney. 
In the library, she now had the smallest one put 
up, which was an air-tight for burning wood. 
As the inner doors of the house always stood 
open, this stove for several weeks gave warmth 
enough for those early fall days, which were 
warm and genial enough when the sun shone, 
and a fire was only needed in the chilly morn- 
ings and evenings, or on occasional stormy 
days. For this Faith found she could use many 
rough, heavy bits of wood that were too large 
for the kitchen stove ; and a heap of gnarled 
branches and knotty roots which she had 
amused herself in collecting, principally to get 
them out of the way, were also satisfactorily 
turned to account and got rid of most use- 
fully. 

Then, as it grew colder, an open Franklin 
that would burn either wood or coal, was placed 
in the dining-room, where gradually a steady 
fire became necessary. A larger stove, with a 
grate that was open or closed at will, and which 


8 o 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


was also a powerful double heater, was put up « 
in the parlor, ready for the arrival of one of 
those sudden cold snaps that usually take the 
world so terribly unawares. 

Then, with two tons of coal, Faith began her 
winter’s campaign, which at a cost of $5.75 a 
ton would not be too heavy an outlay, if it only 
kept her comfortable till the end of the second 
three months. 

The dining-room window seemed rather 
bleak and exposed to the wind, and never at 
that season caught a glimpse even of sunshine ; 
so Faith ordered for it an additional inside sash. 
On its arrival, however, after the usual three or 
four weeks’ delay, she concluded it would do 
her more good in the parlor, whose one west 
window was very much exposed and which, on 
account of the needed sunlight, she could not 
shut up with heavy curtains as conveniently as 
she could the dining-room window. The library 
fire became of less need after the one in the 
dining-room was kept up regularly ; and Faith 
concluded she could do very well without the 
library itself in the winter, as it was an espe- 
cially cold room with its northwestern exposure. 
Removing what she needed of the contents of 


FACTS AND FIGURES. 


81 


her desk, and arranging them on a table in 
the parlor, by her favorite little window that 
overlooked the piazza, she now closed the li- 
brary doors till spring should bid them open 
again with the leaves and flower's. 

The next step was to bring in her plants, and 
arrange them in the bay-window. Faith was 
very fond of having as bright an array of these 
in the winter as possible. While admitting that 
they required as much care and anxious con- 
sideration as half a dozen children, she always 
maintained that they — the plants — were far 
more amusing. They were certainly never 
noisy or disobedient, and their due flowering, 
their bright healthful aspect could be fairly 
well counted on. It was at least her fault, not 
theirs, if they went wrong or met with disas- 
ter or damage of any kind. 


6 


CHAPTER VIII. 

MAKING GARDENS AND MUFFINS. 

Let us then be up and doing, 

With a heart for any fate ; 

Still achieving, still pursuing, 

Learn to labor and to wait. 

Longfellow. 

Faith now undertook the last task of any 
magnitude which needed to be accomplished 
before cold weather came. The briers and under- 
brush, not only around the house but also in front 
and on the west side of it, had been thoroughly 
uprooted and cleared away in the early part of 
the summer; but the earth thus uptorn, and the 
collection, during centuries perhaps, of leaves, 
decayed branches, and all the usual cUbris of 
forest growth, made a surface that needed to be 
laboriously raked over and smoothed. Faith 
was resolved against employing any more work- 
men if it could possibly be helped. She there- 
fore resolved at least to try if this piece of 


MAKING GARDENS AND MUFFINS. 83 

work could not be performed by her own active 
hands, knowing that she could do a little at 
a time if she found it very hard, and feeling 
anxious not to incur any outlay that could be 
avoided, 

Raking up the great mass of rubbish in 
heaps, Faith carried it off in baskets to the 
edge of the western precipice, where she threw 
it over in great glee at the new ground she was 
thus making at its foot. But she soon found it 
a very wearying task, and felt she was overtax- 
ing her strength seriously. It might have been 
less of a strain could she have been content to 
work for only an hour or so at a time ; but in 
her ardent zeal to complete it, its very distaste- 
fulness making her the more eager to get it 
done, she worked often nearly all through the 
long golden days, whose grateful coolness stim- 
ulated her efforts and made such persistency 
possible. 

When the first raking was done, Faith had 
to go over the ground with a hoe, smoothing 
down the greater irregularities, and pulling up 
some obstinate weeds and roots that had defied 
the rake’s insinuations that they were objec- 
tionable. Then another more gentle raking of 


84 : 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


the comparatively smooth ground, after sowing 
grass-seed everywhere except on the west side, 
ended the first stage of Faith’s attempt at land- 
scape gardening. 

She took a few days’ rest then, for she was 
very weary with it all. Her arms and back 
ached sorely with her violent exercise, and the 
tips of her fingers were blistered from contact 
with the rich, humid earth, that was over- 
charged with the alkali produced by the de- 
cayed vegetation. Then, being bountifully sup- 
plied with vines and plants from her friends’ 
gardens, especially those of the Rectory and 
Boscobel, Faith forgot all fatigue in the rare 
delight of arranging her fruits and shrubbery. 

Her great profusion of rose-bushes, lilacs, 
hawthorns, magnolias, syringas, peonies, and 
many other flowering shrubs, Faith scattered 
here and there with charming irregularity ; 
while the honeysuckles, climbing roses, and oth- 
er vines, she placed where she could train them 
either along the piazza, by the bay-window, or 
over the summer-house. Having left for shade 
all large trees, and some smaller ones such as 
dogwoods, bay-berries, and a few young hick- 
ory-nut trees, Faith did not attempt on the west 


MAKING GARDENS AND MUFFINS. 85 

side, which she proposed to devote to fruits, 
any regular arrangement of them in beds or 
rows. With her strawberry - plants in little 
patches, and her currant-bushes and raspberry 
and blackberry vines scattered in groups here 
and there, wherever there was an open space, 
she concluded they would do well enough for 
a beginning. When they grew larger and need- 
ed more room, it would be time enough to cut 
away such trees as should prove to be super- 
fluous. In the same way she planted a variety 
of grape-vines near some rocks, over which she 
would one day train them on a trellis into an 
arbor, for which the rocks would make a natu- 
ral seat. 

There was a beautiful view just here ; and 
Faith looked forward very gladly, in all her 
present fatigue, to the days when she might sit 
there and rest, or eat grapes, as she pleased. 
A Seckel-pear tree, that would be in bearing 
next year, was her crowning joy. She watched 
its being planted — for it was her one acquisition 
that was too large for her to plant herself — in 
delight, wholly ignoring the fine drizzling rain 
that was so liberally besprinkling her. Its 
beneficial effect on the pear-tree was far more 


86 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


important in her eyes at that moment, than its 
possible damaging of health or shoes to herself. 

Afterward, she ventured on one investment 
for her fruit grounds, by buying two peach and 
two apple trees, which she planted one bitter 
cold afternoon. It was her last effort in this 
direction, as there were now too often heavy 
frosts at night to make the transplanting of any 
trees at all safe, Still, this all made a promising 
beginning ; and Faith was greatly elated at 
thought of the supply of fruits for the next year, 
which would be doubly delightful, not only for 
having been gathered by herself, but because 
they would involve no expenditure. She even 
had a tiny persimmon-tree, given her rather ro- 
mantically one Sunday afternoon, while taking 
a stroll among the deserted wreck of what was 
once a handsome place, but now a scene of utter 
desolation. Whether her life was likely to en- 
dure till she should gather persimmons from it, 
she did not stop to consider. 

A bright, cheery letter from Mrs. Nymscy- 
witch thanking her for the sketches which gave 
so pleasant a notion of her cosy home, but still 
deferring for a little coming to see her in per- 
son, rather disappointed Faith at this time. 


MAKING GARDENS A AD MUFFINS. 87 

Now that there was little to do to her house, be- 
yond adding dainty touches at such odd mo- 
ments as she should feel inclined to devote her- 
self to them, she was more impatient than ever 
to have her trusty friend behold what she con- 
sidered the perfection of her home. 

Mrs. Nymscy witch had added as a postscript 
to her letter : 

“ By-the-way, how do you make those muf- 
fins you write about so glibly ? I am shrewdly 
suspicious that they exist only in your fertile 
imagination ; and are talked of now and then 
to deceive your tender-hearted friends into be- 
lieving you eat them. I’m sure Lady Disdain 
thinks so. And those desserts, made with one 
egg, forsooth ! just give me a few formulas for 
them. I should call that light housekeeping 
with a vengeance.” 

“ How do I make muffins ? ” wrote Faith in 
reply, having first decorated the top of her 
sheet of paper with a pen-and-ink sketch of her- 
self, in a white apron that covered her from 
head to foot, as she stood over a stove, brandish- 
ing a huge spoon in one hand and holding a 
bowl of corresponding size in the other. “ Well ! 
if I told you the literal truth, I would say, ‘ I take 


83 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


some flour and baking-powder and salt and 
milk and mix them up, and cook them.’ But 
you want everything measured, I suppose, 
which is a thing I never do. To a large cup 
of flour, a small teaspoonful of baking-powder 
and a pinch of salt would be about right. Mix 
them dry, then add milk enough to make a stiff 
batter, and drop it by spoonfuls in a pan of 
melted butter. I don’t use rings, because if I 
did I should be sure, when I went to turn them, 
to land them on the floor or in the wood-basket. 
Besides, they bake quicker without. How to eat 
them is the point of real importance. Pull them 
open with your fingers, instead of making them 
heavy by cutting with a knife, butter them lib- 
erally, and eat them at once. Then, if you have 
any left, put them away buttered ; and when 
you want them toast them till brown and crisp 
and hot, butter them again , and see if you ever 
tasted anything better in your life. 

“As for my desserts, about which you ask 
so sceptically, they are real and good, as I un- 
dertake all my culinary achievements shall be. 
Wonders can be done with an egg in skilled 
hands. For instance, one, beaten well, and ad- 
ded with a little sugar to a cup of milk, poured 


MAKING GARDENS AND MUFFINS . 89 

into a buttered dish, with some grated nutmeg 
on the top, and baked fifteen minutes, makes 
the dear old-fashioned custard we so loved in 
our younger days. I have two lovely little 
white pudding-dishes which hold each a half- 
pint that I find very convenient for these uses. 
Another triumph is to add an egg to a cup of 
milk and one of flour, which fills both my pud- 
ding-dishes, and bake for twenty minutes. I 
eat one hot with wine sauce for my dessert 
the first day, and find the other very good for 
lunch, cold with butter; or else I heat it for 
dessert again. 

“ Then, an egg can do good execution joined 
to half a cup of milk and half a cup of bread or 
cracker crumbs. This is also to be eaten hot, 
with wine sauce. I have lots of crumbs, as the 
last dry crusts of my bread are always turned 
into this useful condition. They are usually dry 
enough ; but if not, I dry them in the oven be- 
fore rolling them. 

“ This last formula is susceptible of numerous 
variations. You can add some sugar and either 
raisins, citron, or in fact any fruit you please. 
In summer, any kind of berries are delicious 
used this way. So are peaches and apples. 


9 o 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


Huckleberries are the best of all. By-the-way, 
I am almost overcome with delight from finding 
some huckleberry-bushes on my own noble do- 
main. It is really wonderful how rich in re- 
sources this heap of rocks is proving. I have 
even seen what looks dimly like the entrance of 
a cave. Just suppose I should find Captain 
Kidd’s treasures concealed here ! ” 

Thus merrily Faith responded to Mrs. Nym- 
scywitch’s earnest friendliness, making ever the 
best of things, determined to see and exhibit 
only the bright side of each event in her novel 
life. An experiment it still was ; but if a strong 
will, a zealous perseverance through every trial, 
and a naturally cheerful temperament could 
control success, her day of well-won, hardly 
earned triumph, however delayed it might be, 
would surely come at last. 


CHAPTER IX. 


FESTIVITY. 

A celestial harmony 
Of likely hearts . . . 

Which join together in sweet sympathy, 

To work each others’ joy and true content. 

Spenser. 

While yet October’s golden glory clothed 
the earth in richest colors of autumn’s foliage, 
Faith conceived the ambition of giving an after- 
noon reception. All her friends and neighbors 
had been so attentive, not only in frequently 
calling on her, but in urging her acceptance of 
their many invitations, that she felt some ac- 
knowledgement of their kindliness was impera- 
tive. It needed not be an extravagance, she 
considered. By still maintaining her sturdy 
independence of domestic aid, the mere cost of 
giving her guests coffee, cake, fruit, and punch 
would be very little. In her usual practical 
way, she studied out all the details in advance. 


92 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


For perhaps twenty-five persons, the coffee, with 
the cream and sugar would cost about forty 
cents. Sponge and citron cake made by her 
own hands would involve an expenditure in 
materials to the value of sixty cents. Fifty 
cents’ worth of grapes, pears, and oranges would 
be sufficient to fill her fruit-baskets admirably ; 
and the bottle of claret, with sugar and half a 
dozen lemons for punch, would cost as much 
more. 

So Faith went merrily to work ; her open 
heart rejoicing too sincerely in the pleasure of 
receiving her friends to regard her preparations 
for their entertainment as other than an added 
enjoyment. It was but a morning’s work to 
make her cake ; while a few hours on the day 
of the reception sufficed to dust and arrange 
her always neat house, and to prepare the din- 
ing-room table with all her bright array of silver, 
glass, and china. Then, with everything ready 
in the kitchen for making the coffee when the 
proper moment should arrive, Faith, many min- 
utes before they arrived, was all smiles and 
eagerness to welcome her guests. A gorgeous 
array of bright colored dahlias, marigolds, and 
crysanthemums, which had been sent to her in 


FESTIVITY. 


93 


advance, she used to gayly decorate the rooms, 
mingling with them sprays of her own graceful 
ferns and rich hued oak and sumach leaves. 

It was a delightful success ! The novelty of 
Faith’s curiously arranged house and her inde- 
pendent notions of housekeeping formed still the 
one piquant sensation in the neighborhood ; and 
a pleasant, gentle-toned excitement pervaded 
the assembly as they wandered from room to 
room, eagerly admiring, or indulgently criticis- 
ing every detail. Some of them ventured upon 
invading the dining-room, daringly inspecting 
in advance the perfectly appointed table, where 
the blended fragrance of flowers, fruit, cake, and 
punch saluted them with delicious suggestions 
of coming enjoyment. Even the kitchen was 
not safe from intrusion. Faith followed them, 
pretending to scold, and declaring they had 
frightened her modest domestic away with their 
clamor. They retired reluctantly, vowing they 
would return and watch the process of the cof- 
fee-making, by-and-by. They forgot all about it, 
however, when the time came, and were listen- 
ing to some sprightly music in the parlor, when 
Faith slipped away for the moment’s task of 
pouring the boiling water over the coffee. Re- 


94 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


turning then demurely to the parlor, she sat 
down and played an old-fashioned jig, on finish- 
ing which, she again slipped into the kitchen. 

Almost before she was missed she had 
poured the smoking coffee, clear as amber and 
deliciously fragrant, into her silver urn, and 
placed it on the dining-room table. Then, 
throwing open the door with an air of mock 
ceremony, she welcomed the eager entrance 
that scarcely awaited her words of invitation. 

How blithe and happy they all were ! Faith 
had a curious charm of manner that warmed 
the hearts of her guests with the sweet con- 
sciousness of being truly welcome, of conferring 
as well as receiving pleasure. There was no 
stiffness or formality anywhere. All were good 
friends, all loved Faith dearly ; how could cere- 
mony be permitted to chill their accord, or un- 
duly restrain their always decorous merriment! 
And as they knew how Faith’s own hands had 
wrought all these dainty confections, how pleas- 
antly their words of praise fell upon her heart ! 

“Above all, you must tell me, Faith, how 
you make your sponge-cake ! ” cried one, while 
a chorus at once took up the request, and 
urgently repeated it. 


FESTIVITY. 


95 

“ It would be of no avail,” she said, laugh- 
ingly. “You would never take the trouble to 
observe the directions accurately, and then you 
would blame me for your dismal failure.” 

“ Indeed we will ! just try us ! ” they cried. 

“Well! you’ll be sure to forget the most 
important particulars, so I’ll not really risk pre- 
serving my pre-eminence of success. First, you 
must have a dozen eggs, all as nearly as possi- 
ble of the same size.” 

“Is that important?” queried one incredu- 
lously. 

“ Extremely so. Then, being careful that 
neither sugar nor flour is in the least damp, 
take the exact weight of ten of the eggs in gran- 
ulated sugar and the exact weight of six of the 
eggs in flour.” 

“ How exact you are ! ” 

“ That is the most imperative necessity of 
all,” went on Faith gravely. “ Then put the sug- 
ar in a large bowl, with a teaspoonful of vanilla 
flavoring. Add the yolks of your eggs, and 
have one person to beat this mixture briskly 
with a wooden spoon till it is very light, while 
another beats the whites in a separate rather 
shallow dish with a silver fork.” 


9<5 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


“ Which did you do ? ” asked somebody, so 
quizzically that all laughed at Faith’s apparent 
dilemma. 

“ Don’t interrupt me ! ” she observed severe- 
ly. “ I want especially to impress upon your 
minds that one of those vile egg-beating ma- 
chines must not be used.” 

“ But it’s so much easier ! ” 

“ It’s always easier to spoil things than to 
make them as they ought to be. Now, where 
was I ? — oh ! Then put the two together, beat 
thoroughly, adding the flour last of all, which 
must be gently mixed in, without any more beat- 
ing. Pour this into shallow pans lined with 
buttered paper, and bake about twenty min- 
utes.” 

“ Suppose it isn’t done then ? ” 

“ It ought to be. You can always find out 
with a whisk from the broom, or a straw.” 

“ I don’t believe any one else could make it 
taste like this ! ” taking another piece with a 
contented sigh. 

“ No ! Faith’s touch gives it a flavor — ” 

“ Not of earth and weeds, I hope ! ” cried 
Faith, coloring with pleasure at her friends’ kind- 
ly praise. 


FESTIVITY. 


97 

“ Perhaps it is ! But it’s good, whatever it 
may be.” 

Faith knew her little entertainment was sim- 
ple and unpretending enough ; and that the 
zest with which her friends so genuinely en- 
joyed it came from the impulse of truly lov- 
ing hearts ; and this sense thrilled her own 
with grateful gladness. Her friends presently 
strolled once more over the house, and out 
upon the piazza, which the rising moon was 
flooding with silver light. 

“ Ah, Faith ! ” they cried at parting, “ we pit- 
ied you, here by yourself all alone ; we be- 
wailed your foolishness in seeking such seclu- 
sion; but, after all, what a lovely home you have ! 
How happy you seem to be ! ” 

Faith smiled as she bade one after another 
good-night. She stood some moments looking 
after them, as the carriages rolled rapidly away, 
and fell into a deep reverie. Then she turned 
and re-entered the house. A reaction that was 
almost painful came over her as she looked at 
the scene before her. The piano was open, 
with loose music lying everywhere ; not a chair, 
not a book was in its usual place, while the 
dining-room disarray was truly discouraging. 

7 


98 HOW SHE DID IT, \ 

It was Faith’s first exhibition of weakness that 
she left everything untouched till the next 
morning. She rested for an hour in silent re- 
trospection of her pleasant day, and then retired 
to her room very much earlier than usual. 


CHAPTER X. 


DAYS OF ILLNESS. 

Labor is life ! *tis the still water faileth ; 

Idleness ever despaireth, bewaileth ; 

Keep the watch wound, or the dark rust assaileth. 

Frances S. Osgood. 

To many less warm-hearted women the 
work of washing up and rearranging the disor- 
dered array on the dining- room table, and of 
again adjusting the displaced furniture, would 
have been a piece of simple drudgery, especially 
when left to be done, as it were in cold blood, 
the next morning. But Faith went at the task 
even merrily. She crooned to herself the 
while her favorite old-fashioned songs, which 
were associated to her with just such work. In 
the olden time, while her mother, who clung to 
this custom all her life, would be leisurely wash- 
ing and arranging her tea-things in the soft sum- 
mer twilight, Faith could walk up and down the 


100 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


piazza, past the open dining-room windows, sing- 
ing in her clear young voice the same old tunes. 
It was the only help her mother wanted ; and 
this, she always said, made her task a very 
bright, cheery one. Often since, Faith, as now, 
would sing while at work about the house, and 
fancy her mother still was listening to the airs 
that brought back her memory with such sweet 
sadness. 

There came within a few days one of win- 
ter’s briskest breezes, rushing the thermometer 
down not far from zero, during one night. The 
first shock of it, coming while Faith’s strength, 
after so much exertion, was not quite re-estab- 
lished, and compelling her to sudden inaction 
within doors, shook her rudely, and suggested 
the incipient suspicion that her house-work in 
extreme weather would be too much for her. 
Yielding to this fear, joined to the constant 
urging of her friends, she concluded to try a 
partial concession to their wishes. Engaging a 
young girl to come to the house for a few hours 
every morning, intending to give her various 
pieces of scrubbing and cleaning to do on the 
days when she was not washing and ironing, 
Faith took refuge in her books and work, and 


DA VS OF ILLNESS. 


IOI 


waited the result with very doubtful expecta- 
tion. 

It was dreary and disheartening in the ex- 
treme. Obliged to rise earlier than usual to ad- 
mit the damsel, and finding it a far more la- 
borious task to show her over and over again 
just how to prepare the breakfast than to have 
done it herself, Faith sighed in secret for her 
former independence, and her resolve to regain 
it strengthened every day. Exactly where the 
difference lay she could not see, but the girl’s 
clumsy efforts fell far short of Faith’s own suc- 
cess in giving the meal the dainty freshness she 
loved. 

Then the washing of the whole parapher- 
nalia of kitchen and dining-room uses was so 
inferior. With much splashing of hot water 
and great waste of soap, while brick-dust and 
dish-water marked the white walls sadly, noth- 
ing possessed the smooth gloss that Faith al- 
ways took such pride in; and the knives be- 
came dull and lusterless for want of proper 
polishing. 

One day Maryanne was set to wash windows ; 
and this Faith found a still greater trial. At 
one moment it was: 


102 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


“ Please ma’am, here’s a sash won’t come 
down.” 

Patiently Faith would put down her work, 
and reduce the refractory sash to submission. 
Just as she had found her needle again, and as- 
certained where she had left off, it was : 

“ Please ma’am, I’ve dropped my dry towel 
in the water. Will you give me another?” 

Silently, but in growing rebellion, Faith gave 
her the desired article. Then, stopping to throw 
open another window and to see that its sashes 
moved easily, she returned to her work, confi- 
dent this time of being undisturbed for half an 
hour at least. 

Vain hope! Again Maryanne’s monotone 
sounded in her ears. 

“ Please ma’am, it’s eleven o’clock, and I 
must go home to get my brother’s dinner ready.” 

The second window had not been touched ; 
and Faith had the consolation of washing it her- 
self, after the girl was gone, doing it of course 
in half the time that Maryanne would have 
taken, and twice as well. 

So it went on for a week, and Faith’s nerves 
were all on edge with the worry of seeing every- 
thing in disarray, and of following Maryanne 


DA YS OF ILLNESS . 


103 


wearily around trying to show her what to do. 
It was far more fatiguing to look on at her stu- 
pid dragging movements, than it would have 
been to have performed the same task herself. 
As the second week progressed, Faith’s endur- 
ance was at its last gasp, and she was screwing 
up her courage to dismiss Maryanne as imprac- 
ticable, when the girl, perhaps suspecting her 
coming fate, took the burden on herself by say- 
ing: 

“ Please ma’am, mother thinks she can’t spare 
me any longer. She says — ” 

“ Is that so ? ” interrupted Faith briskly. 
“ Well, I dare say you would have found it hard 
to get here through the snow in winter.” 

With a merrier heart than she had known for 
many days, Faith paid, and said a cheery good- 
by to the astonished girl, who had evidently so 
high a sense of her great merits, that she had 
looked for persuasion to stay, and perhaps the 
offer of higher wages. 

Again Faith flitted joyously about the house, 
getting everything in the order that best suited 
her fancy. For some days, full of her old ac- 
tivity, she swept and dusted within doors, and 
raked up the falling leaves without, till those 


104 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


who in passing had of late missed her brisk 
movements, now looked again in curious ap- 
proval at her busy, almost flying feet. 

But long dreary days of depressing cloudi- 
ness followed. It was not often a steady down- 
pour of rain, whose beating on the roof is often 
musical and soothing, but most frequently a 
wretched drizzle that silently soaked the already 
sodden earth, and plastered the dry leaves down 
into the oozing mud in the most hopeless man- 
ner. Then, in the intervals of this doleful per- 
formance, would come heavy masses of stifling 
fog, shutting out even the dreariness that pre- 
vailed before, and making life a burden for want 
of one breath of clear, crisp air. 

To this influence Faith succumbed, in spite of 
all her struggles against it. Unable to take one 
step beyond the piazza, and losing much of her 
energy for want of the bracing that air and oc- 
cupation always bestowed, she grew languid 
and weak, till she came suddenly to the start- 
led consciousness that she was really ill. Her 
friends gathered tenderly round her, eager to 
give help and comfort. The doctor attributed 
her condition mostly to the reaction that was 
inevitable after such extreme and long contin- 


DA YS OF ILLNESS . 


105 


ued exertion, followed by the enforced idlness 
of these last dreary days, in which her mind 
preyed upon itself for want of more healthful 
food, and she had fretted over the difficulties 
she could no longer contend with. 

It was amusing yet touching to see how 
Faith was besieged on all sides with offers of 
care and aid. Above all, she was entreated to 
shut up her house at once, and to take refuge 
in one of the many so hospitably opened to her, 
staying at least until she was again able to take 
up the burdens her nerveless hands seemed 
now incapable of sustaining. 

Faith smiled faintly yet gratefully at this, 
but shook her head with all her wonted positive- 
ness. 

“ But, consider how unprepared you are for 
actual sickness ! ” cried one pathetically. “ You 
refuse our aid now ; but if we come to take care 
of you here, where will you find a place for us 
to sleep ? ” 

“ Sleep ! ” cried Faith, rousing herself for a 
moment into her old sparkling manner, and as- 
suming an air of great indignation. “ If I am ill 
enough to need people’s coming to take care of 
me, do you suppose I expect them to sleep ? If 


I 0 6 HOW SHE DID IT. 

they are going to sleep when they ought to be 
watching over me, they might as well stay at 
home.” 

“ But you need care — ” 

“ Not yet, at least. My housekeeping is so 
systematic and so perfectly arranged, that the 
little I have to do gives me just the exercise I 
require. As long as I can keep on my feet I 
shall maintain my independence ; and it will be 
time enough for people to come pottering over 
me when I havn’t the strength to take care of 
myself.” 

“ Any one else would be in bed now — ” 

“ Any one else would be a goose, then ! Ask 
the doctor if it would be best for me.” 

Faith knew he would side with her, as he did 
when appealed to. She needed, he said, just to 
rest, without complete inaction ; and he hoped 
soon by his tonics and sedatives, aided by her 
own common sense as an effectual ally, to re- 
store the nervous tone which had been so rough- 
ly shaken. 

“ Come and see her as you will ! ” he 
added. “To have you coming back and forth, 
with your cheery faces and bits of light news 
from the outer world will help her to pass the 


DAYS OF ILLNESS. 


io; 

tedious hours of enforced rest. She can take 
care of herself still, and is the better for doing 
it, in moderation.” 

So they left Faith in peace to her sofa and 
her hours of idleness. She would sometimes 
doze for many minutes, to awaken with a smile 
as she found some dear face placidly regarding 
her. Then, in the next interval of solitude, she 
would read one of the books with which she 
was kept supplied, or drag herself languidly 
about the house, looking, with amused eyes, at 
the order that was not all her own handiwork. 
Dainty rolls, delicate contributions of cold tur- 
key and celery, chicken salad, transparent slices 
of ham, oysters, and confections of every kind,, 
with fruits in lavish profusion, came from all di- 
rections. Such gifts made her housekeeping a 
mere pretense, which was an aid in itself of 
practical importance ; but their chief benefit 
was in rousing her drooping spirits to a sense of 
keen pleasure in recognizing the loving hearts 
which prompted them. The driest crust would 
have been welcome, given so tenderly ; and 
Faith, with the capricious appetite of half-way 
illness, sometimes wondered at the varied at- 
tractiveness of these dainties. Having very lit- 


108 HOW SHE DID IT. 

tie else to do, she would frequently rouse herself 
up to get some California grapes or some wine- 
jelly, or whatever else her fancy craved, which 
she eat at very brief intervals. 

M I’m always eating!” she declared to one 
friend, with her low, pleasant laugh of supreme 
content. “You see I’ve so many good things 
at hand, I really have to eat all the time to use 
them up. It wouldn’t do to throw them away, 
you know.” 

For all the loving anxiety of Faith’s friends, 
she was soon bright and well as ever again, and 
she began with renewed energy to look after 
the house, that had been so long unswept and 
undusted, and to see that her house-plants were 
duly cared for. 

“ Some day I must write up my accounts,” 
she said to herself, with a practical business-like 
air. “ I shall find it a strange muddle this 
month. Servant’s wages and doctor’s bills are 
new and unwelcome items ; but my friends’ 
charity has almost balanced that amount, I 
fancy, by reducing my grocer’s and butcher’s 
bills.” 

There was no morbid or foolish pride in 
Faith’s soul on this point. What she gratefully 


DA YS OF ILLNESS. 


log 


accepted as prompted by the purest regard, she 
was proud to acknowledge, even as she de- 
lighted in the regard itself. She would have 
scorned and refused the richest offering that 
came grudgingly, however ; and would have 
literally starved, rather than to accept life at 
the cost of such a degradation. 


CHAPTER XI. 


REST, AND PLANS FOR WINTER 

Chance will not do the work — chance sends the breeze ; 

But if the pilot slumber at the helm, 

The very wind that wafts us toward the port 
May dash us on the shelves. — Scott. 

Faith, having safely glided over the perilous 
incline of illness from her former overwrought 
exaltation to the plane of utter idleness, felt, 
even after a comparative recovery, inclined to 
dally awhile in that state of inaction. A curi- 
ous languor possessed her, which rendered her 
simple household duties as much as she cared 
to accomplish. Perhaps even they would have 
been neglected if they had required much exer- 
tion, or could have been dispensed with with- 
out interfering with her personal comfort. It 
also made a great deal of difference, without 
doubt, that there was really nothing of impor- 
tance claiming her attention. The season was 


REST, AND PLANS FOR WINTER. m 

too far advanced for any more out-of-door enter- 
prises ; and what awaited her consideration 
within could very readily be deferred till she 
felt inclined to resume her former activity. 

Thus, lounging rather lazily from one little 
task to another, rising much later in the morn- 
ing, and idling away her time in a fashion very 
unlike herself, she welcomed the friends whose 
visits did not cease with her convalescence, and 
accepted their proffered drives, in a way she had 
not before found leisure for. Seeming almost 
to lose interest in her household concerns, she 
would just lock up the house, and go off for a 
few hours, or even the whole day, having no 
apprehensions as to its safety in her absence 
She would come back a little weary, but full of 
pleasant memories of the cheery homes she had 
visited, and indirectly gaining much in health 
and spirits for this complete change in her mode 
of existence. Perhaps the sense of its necessary 
briefness, the certainty that not many days of 
mellow brightness remained to render these 
drives and walks enjoyable, tempted her to give 
herself up so unreservedly to the fleeting pleas- 
ure. 

Soon, indeed, as November closed gloomily 


1 12 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


upon the earth with little flurries of snow and 
nights of sharp frost, Faith found the cold with- 
out was not so easily encountered with her less 
rugged physique, and that the indoor home 
comfort needed to be more closely looked after. 
Building her house in the sunny June days, she 
had not realized its imperfect preparation for 
winter. The hastily constructed cellar under 
the house was full of wood ; and she had quite 
overlooked the need of a place for storing coal. 
Even now, making with her own hands, almost 
unaided, a coal-bin that would hold half a ton, 
out of some old fence-boards, it only occurred to 
her later that in the country it is wise to pro- 
vide fuel-supplies in the beginning for the whole 
winter. 

Then, as it grew steadily colder and colder, 
she found it a trial to climb up to the servant’s 
room, where she kept her housekeeping supplies 
in larger quantities, to replenish the boxes and 
canisters that were for immediate use. There 
was no room for them in the kitchen, nor in the 
dining-room, whose circumscribed space was al- 
ready so overcrowded. After long study of 
this vexed question, having felt from the begin- 
ning, that her dining-room was a disappointment 


REST, AND PLANS FOR WINTER- 113 

to her, for want of light as well as space, Faith 
arrived at the desperate conclusion that she 
must enlarge it. This could be accomplished 
by making a wide arch where the window was, 
and building an extension four feet deep, and 
nearly the whole width of the dining-room. 
This, by putting the window in it opposite its 
present position, and adding another in the end 
of the addition, towards the east, would give 
much more light, and would afford space for 
the shelves which she so much needed. The 
buffet could be placed there also ; and the east 
window would make a charming outlook in the 
summer days when it was an object to avoid 
the glare of the sunlight. Faith hoped that very 
little new material would be required, as the 
same siding, window, and window-frame could 
be used, and with the exercise of care in mov- 
ing them that even the painting need not be 
renewed. Twenty-five to thirty dollars would 
therefore cover the cost, and she had more than 
that left of her stock of ready money. 

Quickly sending word to Caspar to come 
and make the measurements for this work, and 
finding he was too closely engaged elsewhere to 

come at once, Faith then considered another 
8 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


1 14 

problem. The floors of the house had of course 
no ceiling beneath them, and the steady fires 
now kept up made the floor-planks and the base- 
boards shrink slightly apart. It was not notice- 
able ordinarily ; but when the wind blew fiercely 
and continuously for many hours, as had already 
happened, and as was sure to recur many times 
through the winter, it made the floor cold, be- 
yond all the stoves’ warming power. Placing 
another floor of half-inch boards on top of the 
present one seemed at first the best way of 
meeting this difficulty. It would, however, be 
expensive and troublesome, thoroughly upset- 
ting the whole house at a season when such an 
experience would be very uncomfortable. 

Then, as a better and more feasible plan, was 
suggested that of putting a water-proof paper 
sheathing down on the floor, followed by a 
double carpet - lining, with folded newspapers 
laid smoothly along the outer edges, and the 
carpet then replaced. The cost of this would 
be about three dollars, where the other plan 
would have required perhaps fifty. It would 
add nearly as much in thickness, and have the 
advantage of being softer to the tread and also 
warmer, as well as absolutely excluding air and 


REST, AND PLANS FOR IVIN TER. 115 

dampness, which would make it especially de- 
sirable in summer. It could also be done by 
Faith’s own hands, and at her leisure. Provid- 
ing herself with all the materials, she could take 
occasional bright days and do one or two rooms 
at a time, as she should find it convenient ; and 
give it up, too, if it did not result beneficially, 
with less loss and disturbance than the other 
plan would involve. 

Beginning this undertaking at once, Faith 
was fortunate in finding several days that were 
warm enough, within the next two weeks, to 
ascertain the practicability and advantage of the 
scheme. It was nearly done when Caspar came 
to make his measurements for the dining-room 
extension. He smiled as good-humoredly as 
ever, at Faith’s busy fingers and bright, cheery 
ways, and admired all her various bits of handi- 
work very much, wondering how she could have 
done it all in those few months. He could not 
commence work at once, he said ; but promised 
to lose no time, while assuring her it would in- 
volve no exposure to her from the cold, as he 
could work almost entirely from the outside. 


CHAPTER XII. 


A NEW SUCCESS. 

A servant with this clause 
Makes drudgery divine ; 

Who sweeps a room, as for Thy laws, 

Makes that, and th’ action fine. — Herbert. 

The reward of one duty, is the power to fulfill another. 

George Eliot. 

Faith’s earnest devotion to whatever task 
she took in hand often carried her to extremes, 
which the world was apt to regard doubtfully, 
if not with a censure which her pure motives 
did not fairly deserve. Various strongly com- 
bining circumstances had led her to initiate the 
unusual experiment which had been thus far so 
comparatively successful. No other scheme of 
life that was within the scope of her limited 
means had seemed endurable to her. To have 
dragged herself about the world, finding an ex- 
istence that was barely tolerable in the wretched 
array of cheap boarding-houses, where alone she 


A NEW SUCCESS. 


II 7 


could have afforded to seek shelter, seemed to 
her proud spirit simply detestable. Even if the 
novelty had amused her for a while, she would 
have found it infinitely wearisome sooner or 
later; and then the problem that she had now 
partly solved would still present itself. She 
could not afford to defer her action a year or 
two, and to lose thus much of the active 
strength which had so wonderfully sustained 
her. Now, seeing clearly that she could in the 
future live comfortably in her new home on her 
income, she was ready in the mean time to strain 
every nerve to economize sufficiently to pay 
off the mortgage which was her only pecuniary 
burden. She knew that greater ease and the 
aid of a servant would some day become neces- 
sary to her, and if the mortgage could first be 
got rid of by the most strenuous exertions, she 
was full of eager zeal to make them. Her brief 
illness had somewhat startled her ; and she de- 
termined to “ make hay while the sun shone ” in 
good earnest, as she felt her wonted energies 
revive. 

Faith’s one annoyance thus far had been the 
unsatisfactory way in which her washing and 
ironing were done. Accustomed to have her 


1 1 8 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


own neat efficient ways carried out under her 
personal direction, she found the work that was 
done amid such different surroundings very far 
from acceptable. Women who were used to 
washing the rough, much soiled garments of 
their own families, would rub just as vigor- 
ously her dainty lace and embroidery, to its 
unavoidable detriment. Then, hanging up the 
clothes, regardless of the high winds or the 
clouds of dust that might prevail, and careless 
of the consequent rents and dinginess, they 
would iron them in a close, stuffy kitchen, and 
send them home reeking of cooking-odors and 
tobacco-smoke. Faith, enduring this for a while 
because there seemed no help for it, was on the 
alert to grasp at a possible remedy. Hearing 
of a washing-machine that seemed to be actually 
scientific, she studied its feasibility carefully, 
saw that it might be a success, and promptly 
procured one. 

It was simply an arrangement by which a cir- 
cuit of boiling water was established, which, 
passing rapidly over and over again through the 
clothes, cleansed them by its action, without the 
friction that is so provokingly destructive. It 
had also the advantage of leaving no spot un- 


A NEW SUCCESS. 


Il 9 

touched. The rubbing by hand on a wash- 
board often misses many places that most need 
it, although it is sure to be vigorous enough 
wherever delicate material calls for tender treat- 
ment. 

Taking a bright and sunny day for this new 
enterprise, Faith had a glowing fire ready in the 
kitchen before breakfast, for an early start. It 
was only necessary to put the boiler on nearly 
full of water, with the apparatus arranged in it, 
and some bits of soap ; and to add the clothes 
after rubbing soap wherever they were soiled. 
Twenty minutes of boiling cleansed them, dur- 
ing which time Faith could rest, or occupy her- 
self elsewhere. Then a thorough rinsing 
showed the clothes white and pure as snow, 
and Faith blithely hung them up, wondering 
why washing was such a trial and a bug-bear to 
the world when it could be made so easy. She 
had accomplished in an hour, with very little 
trouble, and without any splashing of water, or 
disarray of her dress, what a servant would 
have spent half a day in doing, besides drench- 
ing the kitchen and herself with soap-suds. 

The next day, Faith, ever resolute in carry- 
ing out the experiment practically, and in all its 


120 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


details, accomplished the ironing in an hour and 
a half. It was a less pleasant task for her unac- 
customed hands, and she burned her fingers 
once or twice, besides scorching her face over 
the fire. Still, it was done, and very much bet- 
ter than usual, if it was wearisome. 

“ The man who invented that machine was a 
Yankee, of course! ” mused Faith, as she folded 
up the trophies of her skill and put them away 
very triumphantly. “Well! if another one will 
only contrive an ironing-machine, the greatest 
burden of housekeeping will be done away with 
forever.” 

For a few weeks, perhaps longer, Faith knew 
it would simply be an amusement to occupy her- 
self with her new toy, especially as, just now, 
she had so little of active work to do. When 
she got tired of it, she would arrange to have 
some one come to the house and do the work 
under her direction ; and meantime, her own use 
of the machine would probably pay its first cost. 

“ Oh ! ” she cried, impulsively some weeks 
later, as she took her accounts in hand to make 
a statement for the second quarter just expiring. 
“ If it wasn’t for that mortgage how easy every- 
thing would be ! ” 


A NEW SUCCESS. 


121 


This time the work on the house was : 

Making the extension to the dining-room, of which the 


material cost $16 25 

The carpenter work 9 50 

One double sash 2 00 


$27 75 


For house-furnishing were : 


One washing-machine $2 00 

Four kitchen-towels 40 

Six doilies 75 

One looking-glass 1 00 

Two pudding-dishes 20 

$4 35 


The housekeeping statement varied oddly 
from the former one, showing that, while the 
breakfast supplies had been about the same, 
those for other meals were very much less. 
This was due to the delicacies brought so often 
by her friends during her illness, and which 
frequently spared her the exertion of getting a 
regular lunch or dinner. Then, too, as she be- 
came convalescent, she was often absent at one 
or both of these meals; while only once or twice 
had this occurred at breakfast, when she re- 
mained away overnight. Her actual supplies 
had been : 


22 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


Five and a half pounds of coffee 37 

Two pounds of oatmeal 3 ° 

Three pounds of wheat-germs 45 

Three pounds of hominy 15 

Forty-five quarts of milk 2 25 

Eighteen pounds of beef, twelve pounds of chicken, nine 

pounds of mutton, five pounds of sausage 6 75 

One hundred and fifty oysters 1 5 ° 

Four dozens eggs 1 00 

Nine pounds of butter 2 25 

Half gallon of California sherry 1 50 

One dozen of Milwaukee lager beer 1 25 

Twenty-one pounds of flour 7° 

Three and a half pounds of sugar 24 

Rolls 25 

Vegetables 1 18 

One bushel of apples, four fruit-trees 1 00 

Firewood 50 

Coal 11 50 

Washing, ironing, and wages 4 50 

Cream, lemons, claret, and fruit for party 1 00 

Soap, pepper, salt, and kerosene 95 

$40 59 

This amount did not greatly exceed the 

account for the first three months, although it 

included the heavy item of coal. 

“ The economy of sickness forsooth ! ” mur- 
mured Faith, as she looked dolefully at the for- 
midable array of figures. “ It doesn’t pay at all 
to be sick. Still I would have needed the coal 
any way, I suppose. Now, let’s see about my 
personal expenses.” 


A NEW SUCCESS. 


123 


These were : 

One pair of gloves $0 75 

One pair of overshoes 35 

Three yards of plush. 2 25 

Doctor’s bill 9 00 

One book 25 


$12 60 

Faith had studied over her wardrobe be- 
fore attempting to make a statement of her ac- 
counts, rather dreading to find numerous needs 
that must imperatively be supplied. She was, 
however, not only a careful manager, but also 
very dexterous in contriving ways of prolong- 
ing the days of usefulness for many articles of 
apparel. She found her possessions amply suf- 
ficient, not only for comfort, but for a due re- 
gard for appearances, during the winter, with 
one exception. Of silk dresses, house-dresses, 
and out-of-door wraps there were enough ; but 
her black velvet dress, which for two winters 
already had been so warm and serviceable for 
driving or visiting, was scarcely presentable for 
another season. Again, her wits were called to 
aid. The purchase of three yards of steel-gray 
plush, the remodeling of the whole dress with 
the addition of this material, and its thorough 
renovation at her skillful hands met this grave 


124 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


difficulty successfully, and was an economy in 
which she took especial pride, as well as in a 
bonnet made of the pieces of velvet and plush. 

A full statement of the second quarter’s ac- 
count, Faith found as follows : 


Income for three months $75 00 

Taxes and interest $11 25 

House-furnishing 4 35 

Housekeeping 4° 59 

Personal expenses 12 60 

$68 79 
$6 21 


Poor Faith felt a moment’s discouragement 
at this result ; but quickly cheered up again as 
she reflected how wonderful it was that any bal- 
ance at all was left during the first six months. 
So many extra expenses had been incurred, the 
benefit of which only the future would feel, that 
she was sure her income would always permit 
the payment of something, however trifling, 011 
the mortgage. This would be lessening the in- 
terest each year; and so, sooner or later, the 
burden would be lifted, and she would be free 
from its weight of care and anxiety. 

There might not for years be any further 
outlay required on the house. Faith found now 
that, after paying for the dining-room extension 


A NEW SUCCESS. 


125 


and the extra lining on the floors, she had 
twenty-four dollars left of the ready money she 
fortunately had on hand. This, with the sixteen 
dollars and sixty-seven cents left of her income, 
enabled her to pay forty dollars on the mortgage, 
leaving a balance of sixty-seven cents in her 
favor to begin the new year with. 

With a flush of embarrassment at the small- 
ness of this sum, yet proud, too, of having it to 
offer, Faith paid it with the half-year’s interest 
promptly on the first day of January, saying 
softly to herself as she came home again: 

“ I’ll make it up to one hundred in July, if I 
live and keep well ! I know I can do it. I can 
see even now just where the difference can be 
saved. But oh, for a windfall ! for some provi- 
dential help to clear it off faster! I don’t care 
how hard I may have to work. Was ever task- 
master so cruel as a mortgage?” 

Faith sighed and pondered. No gleam of 
light came, yet she trusted still. She knew 
she had done her utmost in every respect; that 
on the fulfilled duties of the past she could 
build firmly for future higher aims and prog- 


ress. 


CHAPTER XIII. 


THE SPINNING-JACKS. 

A virtuous deed should never be delayed ; 

The impulse comes from Heaven, and he who strives 

A moment to repress it, disobeys 

The god within his mind. — Alexander Dow. 

That same evening, Faith sat in her arm- 
chair in front of the parlor-fire, with her hands 
clasped over her knees, and lost for many mo- 
ments in a profound reverie. An open letter 
lay in her lap at which she glanced anxiously 
more than once. Presently she started up im- 
pulsively, saying aloud : 

“Yes! I will do it! There is not much 
risk, if any ; and I can’t be passive in such an 
emergency.” 

Quickly seating herself at her little table, 
she began writing with nervous eagerness. 

“ You told me once, Hester Nymscy witch, 
that you wondered how it would feel to be an 


THE SPINNING-JACKS. 


127 


instrument of Providence ; you imagined one 
would be overpowered with awe and dread. 
Well! is that your present experience ? Or are 
you unconscious of the deep chord you have 
touched, whose re-echoing is thrilling me so 
forcibly? Never could you, in merely gossip- 
ing mood, have told me that sad story of poor 
Letitia Macjimpsey’s fate. How well I remem- 
ber her in our school-days, when she was so 
especially my own friend ! Do you remember 
how we teased her for changing her name to 
one so much odder, when she married Abner 
Spinning-Jack? And so he is dead — nice, hand- 
some fellow that he was ! And he leaves Letitia 
with her two children, to live or starve on $450 a 
year! It is true, as you say, that no where can 
they possibly subsist on that sum under any 
ordinary circumstances. But I’ve been think- 
ing, dear old Hester, thinking hard for half an 
hour at least; and I see just what might be 
done. I write to you, rather than to Letty, be- 
cause you will know best how to make the mat- 
ter clear to her. You see I have just been 
squaring my accounts for the first half-year, and 
they really do square delightfully, taking every- 
thing into consideration. I find my actual living 


128 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


expenses need not be more than $150 a year. 
This gives me every comfort , but does not pay 
for any nonsense. Then, as I have now sup- 
plied all deficiencies in my furnishing and have 
very few personal needs, I ought to pay $100 
every year on the mortgage, besides paying 
interest and taxes, which amount to forty-five 
dollars. Now, why shouldn’t Letty and the 
children come here to share my roof and crust? 
They can live here comfortably, if they will 
be content with the life I find so enjoyable. 
But I want my motives in making the offer 
very clearly understood. In the first place, if 
she will pay $350 a year, reserving the rest for 
her own use, I will risk the chance of their ex- 
penses being beyond that sum. There are 
many items, such as fire, light, and shelter, 
whose cost their presence would not increase. 
These will afford a margin for their benefit or 
mine as it may happen. Now, while I most of 
all want to help Letty, and with all my heart 
would make her welcome in any case, I must 
say frankly that I believe the sum which would 
be cruelly insufficient for any other mode of life, 
will be enough here to give them independence 
as well as comfort. I believe, if they will share 


THE SPINNING-JACKS. 


129 


my light burdens of housework, so far as their 
presence adds to their weight, that by prudent 
management even my bete noir, that dreadful 
mortgage, will be also more rapidly paid off. 
If, as hitherto, we manage among us to do 
everything except the laundry-work, I feel sure, 
that, at the worst, our joint incomes will keep 
our bills paid ; while I confidently hope for 
even better results. Will you tell all this to 
Letty? Tell her that I have been sighing in 
my retreat for some congenial soul, to whom I 
might whisper: 

“ * . . . solitude is sweet.’ 

“ If she prefers it, we will make the experi- 
ment a temporary one, and try it for three or 
six months. I may be a wearisome companion 
for every-day existence, but I can’t be worse 
than the wretched boarding-house people with 
whom she must otherwise have found shelter. 

“ I have said nothing of the contingency you 
mention of Letty’s possibly realizing the dis- 
puted insurance on her husband’s life. The 
question is merely one of irregularity in the 
papers, you say ; and it seems that such an ex- 
cuse for non-payment ought not to be tenable. 
Still, if it is left to the courts to decide, delay, if 
9 


130 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


not final disappointment, is probable. Letty had 
best not waste her thoughts on that hope, wise 
as it of course is to press the claim as strongly 
as she can. The interest of $5,000 would add 
to her income very comfortably. 

“ I can only repeat that I earnestly hope Letty 
will accept my offer, for her own sake first, for 
mine afterward. I have seen little of the chil- 
dren for some years. The girl, Daisy, must be 
fairly in her teens by this time. If she is half as 
sweet and gentle as her mother was when I first 
knew her, she will find a very warm corner in 
my heart waiting for her. Charley is younger, 
and I don’t recall him clearly. He will be sure 
to keep us wide awake with his mischief, if he 
is at all like his father. 

“ I have already planned everything for this 
change in my household. I will give Letty and 
Daisy my room where there is a double bed, 
and put up a smaller one in the library for my- 
self. Then, Charley can have the room over 
the kitchen, which is really a very pretty one, 
and is partly furnished too. I am ready and 
waiting for them now. They may come by the 
next train, if they will ; but they must not dis- 
appoint me by a refusal. Write quickly, dear 


THE SPINNING-JACKS . 


131 

Hester. I have set my heart on this thing, 
and it grows upon me wonderfully the more I 
think of it. I was fairly crying to Providence 
for just the help and comfort it promises, when 
your letter came in such direct response to my 
desire. 

“ Faithfully your friend, 

“Faith Arden." 

The next two days seemed interminable to 
Faith, as she watched each mail and wandered 
disconsolately about the house, eager to make 
her preparations, yet not venturing to do so 
until certainty gave warrant for it. On the 
third morning came the following hasty note : 

“ Dear Faith : How true as steel you always 
are ! I did tell you Letty’s story, quite expect- 
ing the very response you have made. It has 
always been a worry to me to know of your utter 
loneliness in your home. I never decried your 
independence, even when you were working so 
hard ; but I feared another illness, which might 
find you less able to take care of yourself. With 
the Spinning- Jacks to share your burdens as 
well as your comfort, life will be ever so much 
brighter for you all. Letty will come gladly, 


132 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


and at once ; but she makes some conditions 
that are fair and just, I think. You wanted her 
to reserve $100 out of her tiny income for person- 
al uses. Now, she stipulates that, while she will 
aid you actively in every way, you must let her 
pay all that their presence actually costs, at the 
very least. Also, if the insurance money ever 
comes, you must let her make such additional 
payments as would then be reasonable. I don’t 
think she would come to you at all, if she did 
not hope to aid you in paying off your mort- 
gage. She is quite sanguine about the insur- 
ance being paid some day. 

“ They will be with you to-morrow, having 
taken you literally at your word. At my sug- 
gestion, Letty will bring some bits of silver and 
china and other nicknacks that she has pre- 
served through all her troubles, because they 
were wedding-presents. These, with her little 
store of house-linen, will probably meet all your 
increased needs. 

“ I shall come very soon to admire the harmo- 
nious accord which I expect to find established 
among you. 

“ Cordially always, 

“ Hester Nymscy witch. 


\ 


THE SPINNING-JACKS. 


133 


“P. S. — By the way, it’s very nice to be an in- 
strument of Providence in a case like this ; but 
I’m wondering what the instruments do when 
people don’t respond properly to their sugges- 
tions. It isn’t quite so satisfactory then, is it?” 

Faith had never realized how much her lone- 
liness had weighed upon her at times, nor, till 
its success came so suddenly upon her, how 
keenly she had desired this result of her plan. 
Her eyes shone with a wonderful light of hope 
and joy as she flitted about the house in busy 
delight. 


CHAPTER XIV. 


NEW INMATES. 

Tender-hearted stroke a nettle, 

And it stings you for your pains ; 

Grasp it like a man of mettle, 

And it soft as silk remains. — A aron Hill. 

With joyous eagerness, Faith hastened to 
make all the needed preparations for her friends 
coming. She had much to do, and very few 
hours to do it in ; but when in the early twilight 
of those short days the heavy stage-sleigh came 
toiling to her door, everything was done, and she 
stood on the door-step, blithe and happy, as she 
greeted and led them within to the warm, 
brightly lighted hall. She could scarcely avoid 
showing by her sudden start and glance of dis- 
may, how shocked she was by her friend’s 
greatly changed appearance. The pale, sad- 
looking woman with snow-white hair, whose lips 
quivered so piteously as they strove to respond 
to Faith’s warm greeting, was a mere shadow, a 


NEW INMATES. 


135 


perfect wreck of the sweet, gentle creature of old 
times, whose sunny smiles were always so 
charming. The daughter, Daisy, with the shy 
grace of her sixteen years, was far more like 
Faith’s remembrance of her mother; while Char- 
ley, with a bold yet awkward mien, flashed up- 
on her a look that was so full of suppressed fun, 
so suggestive of mischief -loving propensities, 
that she quite forgot the dignity of his over- 
grown boyhood, and gave him a cordial hug. 

“ How good you are, Faith!” began Mrs. 
Spinning-Jack brokenly. 

“ Hush ! ” interrupted Faith, giving her a 
second kiss, and leading her forward to her own 
room. “ You’ve just time to remove your wraps 
and get settled a little before dinner — ” 

“ Dinner ! ” cried Daisy rapturously. “ Do 
you dine late ? How delightful ! ” 

“ Yes ! I am faithful to the good old way,” 
said Faith, hurriedly, as she opened the outer 
door of the room, and told the stage-driver, 
who was taking their baggage out of the sleigh, 
to bring it in that way. 

“ Now don’t stop to unpack,” she went on, 
when this was accomplished. “ It is too cold to 
stay in here long. Come into the parlor, as soon 


136 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


as you are ready, where you can get thoroughly 
warmed.” 

Then, slipping out quietly to see that the din- 
ner was keeping up its merry boiling, and glanc- 
ing again at the dining-table to be sure of its 
due arrangement, Faith was just taking up the 
broiler, in which a beefsteak was already waiting 
its turn, when Daisy’s soft voice whispered re- 
proachfully : 

“ I thought we were to help you so much, 
and here you have everything ready — ” 

“ Oh, there’ll be plenty for you to do, by- 
and-by,” said Faith, as she ascertained that the 
potatoes, turnips, and tomatoes were about done, 
and pushed them back a little to make room for 
the steak. 

In very few minutes this simple, yet appetiz- 
ing meal was arranged on the table, its delicious 
aroma calling on the hungry guests to come 
quickly and partake of it, before it grew chill 
and less enjoyable by delay. 

“ What a cook you are, Faith ! ” observed 
Mrs. Spinning-Jack, with reviving sprightliness. 
“ It puts me in mind of our school-days, when 
we used to have such rural feasts. Do you re- 
member ? ” 


NEW INMATES. 




“ Indeed, I do ! I always had a * taste for low 
pursuits,’ as Miss Alderney used to proclaim 
with such withering sarcasm.” 

“ Rural feasts ! ” cried Daisy enviously. “ O 
mamma! how much better times you must have 
had than girls ever do now ! ” 

“ Times change, my dear,” said her mother, 
smiling at the girl’s tone. “ Children always 
have fun of one kind or another. In our day, 
our parents would have been horrified at girls 
going to the theatre at your age. So we had 
our frolics and feasts, while you have your par- 
ties and theatres. It comes to the same thing 
in the end, I suppose. Faith, did you make 
these rolls?” 

“ Yes! ” she answered, nodding gayly at her 
friend’s approving tone. “ It is a treat I owe to 
your coming. I never could make a small 
enough quantity for myself, and so I had to buy 
two or three at a time. Now I shall make 
bread regularly, which will be a great economy, 
besides being so much better than baker’s bread.” 

“ No doubt, you will try to demonstrate 
that our being here will reduce your expenses, 
and—” 

“Indeed, no! Don’t lay that flattering unc- 


138 HOW she did it. 

tion to your soul ! ” said Faith, as she rose and 
began deftly gathering together the plates and 
viands they no longer needed, and putting them 
on a side-table. “ No ! ” she added, as Mrs. Spin- 
ning-Jack made a movement to rise. “ It will 
only take me a moment. Daisy may help me 
another day ; but you see everything is ready 
at hand. I am always as lazy as I dare to be 
without actually starving myself.” 

As she spoke, she placed a dish of custard 
and another of raspberry-marmalade on the 
table, with plates and spoons, and again sat 
down. 

When they had partaken of this dessert, 
Faith let them assist her in arranging every- 
thing for an immediate washing up. It would 
no longer be practicable to do this only once a 
day, and she made no pretense of not using 
their services. With plenty of hot water and 
those additional willing hands, it occupied 
scarcely fifteen minutes to complete the task ; 
and when the dining-room was again in due 
order, they rested and chatted awhile in the 
cheery, warmly glowing firelight of the parlor. 

Faith very frankly explained all her plan of 
housekeeping, and accepted at once their offers 


NEW INMATES. 


139 


of assistance in every detail. Daisy was eager 
to learn everything, and ambitious of having 
the whole burden laid on her young shoulders 
as soon as she was competent to bear it with 
honor and success. 

“We will all fall into our appointed places 
by degrees," said Faith. “ What each one 
shows an especial talent for shall be so assigned ; 
and if we only have a sufficient variety of quali- 
fications, we shall soon present to the world the 
spectacle of a model household, where every- 
thing is done to perfection." 

“And what am I to do?" asked Charley, 
gravely. “ I don’t know anything about cook- 
ing. I might peel potatoes — " 

“You lovely boy! if you will do that, it will 
be enchanting," cried Faith. “ I always disliked 
it so much that I preferred cooking them with 
their skins on. I even mind washing them ; it 
makes my hands so rough. I shall ever grate- 
fully remember a good neighbor who told me 
it was admissible to wash a week’s supply of 
potatoes at once. I have done it ever since on 
Saturday mornings." 

“ Well ! I’ll wash ’em and peel ’em, too, if you 
like," said Charley, more confidently. “ I don’t 


140 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


believe there’s anything else I could do, but I’d 
like to learn first-rate. I can carry coal for the 
fires, any way. Don’t you want some now ? ” 
and he started up with great alacrity. 

“Not till bed-time!” returned Faith, laugh- 
ing at his eagerness. “ There’s lots of things 
you can do, Charley. Besides looking after the 
fires, you can go to the post-office every day, 
and run on errands for us, as well as take care 
of us when we go out walking.” 

“ What are you afraid of ? ” he asked, curi- 
ously. “ Are there lions or bears in the woods 
about here.” 

“ You foolish Charley ! ” said his mother. 
“ I suspect squirrels are the largest wild animals 
you can find here.” 

“ And rabbits,” he rejoined. “ Shall I catch 
some rabbits and squirrels to make a pie ? ” he 
asked of Faith, fixing his eyes eagerly upon 
her. 

“ I think not,” she said, rather soberly. “ I 
like chicken-pie best, don’t you ? ” 

“ Yes ! have you got any chickens ?” 

“ No ! but I believe I’ll get some if you’ll 
take care of them for me. Would you like 
that ? ” 


NEW INMATES. 


141 

“Jolly well! ” he proclaimed, exultingly. “I’ll 
feed ’em splendidly, and get lots of eggs ; you 
just see if I don’t.” 

It seemed strange to Faith, as they all now 
retired to their rooms for the rest they needed 
after so wearisome a journey, to stand for some 
moments before the parlor fire, and listen to the 
low buzz of their voices and the light footsteps 
that so unwontedly sounded through the house. 
For six months she had dwelt alone ; and above 
all had prized her quiet restful evenings that 
were so undisturbed, so full of repose and com- 
fort. She had indeed taken up a new, a strange 
burden. Would it be more than she could bear? 
Hastily as the whole matter had been arranged, 
there had been moments of misgiving already, 
in which she had feared for the result. Perhaps, 
if she had considered the plan more leisure- 
ly, and had studied out each detail, she would 
never have had the nerve to undertake it. But 
it had come upon her as a stroke of fate. She 
had yielded to an irresistible guidance, without 
questioning its influence for good ; and now 
that the first step was taken, she felt a moment’s 
irresolution. Then the memory of that sad, 
sweet face, so clouded with the sorrow she 


142 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


might hope to alleviate, came back to her, bring- 
ing a rush of salutary tears to her eyes. 

“ No ! ” she said, softly to herself. “ I will 
not turn back now. They will be happy here, 
and useful too in sharing and lightening my 
cares. At the very least, I shall have bright- 
ened their pathway and consoled their grief. It 
may very well be that my own great anxiety, 
the payment of that dreadful mortgage, will be 
helped, too.” 

Faith lingered for some moments, now put- 
ting a chair more accurately in its place or ar- 
ranging the books on the table, till gradually all 
sounds of life throughout the house had ceased. 
The tired travelers were at rest ; and she softly 
put out the light, and turned to the library, which 
was now to be her own room, with a slight sense 
of depression. To the young, changes are ever 
welcome. They seem always to contain an ele- 
ment of promise, which youth interprets favora- 
bly in its irrepressible hopefulness. To Faith, 
however, even the occupation of a different 
room was a little repelling. It jarred upon her 
nerves like a faint touch of discord. The very 
aspect of the room was not cheering. After 
contriving to make Charley’s cozy and comfort- 


NEW INMATES. 


M3 


able with such appliances as she had at hand, it 
being impossible on so short notice to procure 
others, even were she willing to incur the ex- 
pense, there only remained the lounge which 
had been in the dining-room, with the addition 
of a mattress and other bedding, for her own 
use. She had all that was necessary ; but the 
want of space in that small room, after being 
accustomed to one so much larger, and its lim- 
ited conveniences, chafed Faith and tried her 
nerves sadly for the first few days. 


CHAPTER XV. 


AN OVERTHROWN MONARCH. 

In tracing the shade, I shall find out the sun ; 

Trust to me J— Owen Meredith. 

The storm is past, but it hath left behind it 

Ruin and desolation. — Longfellow. 

It did not take many days for the machinery 
of Faith’s domestic regulations to adjust itself 
to the little changes which the Spinning- Jacks’ 
presence made necessary, and to be running as 
smoothly and harmoniously as ever. Faith had 
secretly dreaded possible jarring and heart- 
burnings among them, as they commenced their 
new life in the depth of winter, when the in- 
clemency of the weather would so often keep 
them closely within-doors. It seemed at first 
like such a crowd in the tiny house ; and some 
little jostling appeared absolutely inevitable at 
moments when different tastes claimed indul- 
gence that could not always be granted. But 


AN OVERTHROWN MONARCH 


145 


fortunately their varied impulses never ran 
counter to one another. Mrs. Spinning-Jack at 
once proclaimed an especial vocation for dust- 
ing and sweeping, and asked to have that made 
her exclusive charge. It was the one thing, 
next to peeling potatoes, that Faith had a dis- 
taste for ; and she gladly undertook the culinary 
department. Here, however, she found two 
zealous assistants in the younger Spinning-Jacks, 
who had developed a glowing devotion to her 
service, and insisted on being ever at her side. 
They were often almost under her feet, indeed, 
in their eagerness to learn all the mysteries she 
was such an adept in. Charley wielded the 
coal-shovel with unabated ardor, and really 
kept the fires steadily burning with wonderful 
management ; while he gloried in his artistically 
piled up ash-heap outside, as if it were one of 
the finest structures in the world. Daisy had a 
natural taste for cooking that was an actual tal- 
ent; and while Faith’s restraining hand was 
sometimes needed to prevent a too lavish use of 
expensive ingredients, the girl’s innate neatness 
kept her from wasting even the merest frag- 
ments. She would pore over some old books 

of great culinary fame that Faith had, and de- 
10 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


146 

light in finding some new and toothsome mode 
of utilizing what seemed almost refuse. Char- 
ley even accused her of secreting his potato 
and turnip peelings to make a pudding of ; but 
Daisy stoutly denied that charge, declaring he 
had eaten them up himself, in a sudden fit of 
ravenousness. 

For a while, Faith had tremulously watched, 
as she noted down her outlays, lest she should 
either stint her guests in actual comfort, or 
insensibly spend more than their slender means 
permitted. She was soon satisfied with the 
correctness of her first impression, that the sup- 
plies for four persons would not in most cases 
need to be more than three times what she had 
used for herself ; and as long as she followed 
her former programme generally, she felt toler- 
ably safe. 

It was a trial too, for many days, to have 
always bustling footsteps and cheery voices 
sounding through the house. More than once, 
in a fit of nervous desperation, she contrived to 
send them all off for a walk, that she might take 
breath, and rest a moment, in the delightful 
stillness that followed their departure. It was 
indeed a great relief; and she lounged in an 


AN OVERTHROWN MONARCH. 


H7 


easy-chair before the fire, trying to school her- 
self into patience, and to recall the great need 
that existed for them all of this intimate associa- 
tion. Long before they came back she was 
calmed and soothed into a more congenial frame 
of mind ; and as they entered, rosy and laugh- 
ing over some incident of their walk, bringing 
bunches of bright berries, or some other trophy 
of Charley’s skill in scrambling through rough 
places, she welcomed them with a gladness at 
which she was almost surprised. 

Faith’s little household tasks became very 
trifles, having so many hands to help her ; and 
with all the dreary, gloomy days in which going 
out was impossible beyond a hurried walk up 
and down the piazza, there came to be almost a 
dearth of active occupation. For Charley, who 
claimed the privilege of foraging for broken 
branches to keep up the fire in Faith’s room, and 
who had various errands every day either to 
the post-office — or with orders to the grocery 
and market, there was out-of-door duty enough 
to keep him busy and healthy too. But Mrs. 
Spinning-Jack, seeing how little there was for 
the others to do, and far more anxious than even 
Faith was to curtail expenses as much as possi- 


148 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


ble, no sooner learned of the washing-machine’s 
success, than she insisted on continuing its use. 

“ It will just be an amusement for us,” she 
urged, when Faith shook her head at the sug- 
gestion. “ There need not be any exposure to 
the weather. There is always one day in each 
week when it is sunny and pleasant for drying 
the clothes ; and the ironing is really pleasant 
work.” 

“ But it is not necessary ” persisted Faith. 
“ I calculated on allowing a dollar a week for 
our washing, and we can afford it easily.” 

“ You are not sure of that ! Your estimates 
are so ridiculously low, I don’t believe they will 
stand the test of trial at all. Besides, it is 
always safe to have a margin for accidents. 
Let us create one with the aid of this washing- 
machine. Well ! ” as Faith still looked troubled 
over the notion, “ let us try it for a week or two 
then ! ” 

Faith consented to this as a compromise of 
their differing opinions ; but the result showed 
so much more satisfactory work than the usual 
mode of washing could produce, while the 
money saved was no trifling amount, that with- 
out further discussion, the plan was continued. 


AN OVERTHROWN MONARCH. 


149 


Charley, however, claimed all the credit to him- 
self. It was his delight to sit and watch the 
process and keep up the steam, while the 
others took their ease in the parlor, only com- 
ing in at intervals to rinse and hang up what 
Charley declared were sufficiently “cooked,” 
and to prepare a new batch. 

There came early in March some terrible 
gales of wind that often raged with such vio- 
lence as to keep them close prisoners for days 
together. Now the wisdom of building so low 
a structure was evident; for while the storm 
without was fierce enough to have carried them 
off their feet, had they ventured abroad, there 
was a delightful sense of quiet and shelter with- 
in. Charley, in his upper room, used some- 
times to hear the thunderous echoes at a dis- 
tance as the gale swept furiously up the valley 
beneath his window ; but the others slept tran- 
quilly through it all. 

Once a crash came in the early dawn that 
aroused them all, however, as a huge chestnut- 
tree fell prone to the earth not twenty feet from 
the east end of the house. It was the last sul- 
len effort of the storm, which had pretty well 
abated, when an hour later, they gathered upon 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


150 

the piazza to observe the wreck, and speculate 
on the easiest way of its being- cleared up. 

“ My poor old tree ! ” cried Faith, rather 
dolefully. “ I gathered ever so many chestnuts 
from it in the fall.” 

“ Never you mind ! ” interrupted Charley, in 
boisterous eagerness to console her. “ It’ll be 
of more use to you now than it ever was before ; 
you see if it isn’t.” 

“ It will cost something to get it carried 
away,” said Mrs. Spinning- Jack, regretfully. 

“ I don’t know,” began Faith, thoughtfully. 

“I’ll tell you all about it,” cried the irrepres- 
sible Charley. “I’ve been examining and meas- 
uring it, and it’ll make about twenty famous 
fence -posts, besides lots of firewood for your 
stove, Miss Faith.” 

“ But how to get it cut up — ” 

“I’ll attend to that! You just leave it to 
me. You were saying the other day you would 
want some fence-posts in the spring.” 

“Yes! three or four; but you don’t know, 
Charley, how much it costs to hire a man to 
make them.” 

“ I tell you I know just how to manage it,” 
repeated the boy, sturdily. “Just let’s have 


AN OVERTHROWN MONARCH. 


151 

breakfast, and I’ll see about it right off after- 
ward.” 

That was all the explanation he would give 
them then; but in less than an hour after 
breakfast, Charley made his appearance in the 
parlor, his eyes sparkling and his face all 
aglow with triumph, as he tried to say, care- 
lessly : 

“Miss Faith, there’s a man wants to speak 
with you.” 

“ Who is it?” she asked, looking up in great 
surprise. 

“ It’s just farmer Cricketfield. He wants 
some chestnut fence -posts, he says.” 

Faith started up with quick pleasure. “ You 
good Charley!” she exclaimed. “That is well 
managed.” 

Going out with him, she found he had al- 
ready driven a shrewd bargain with farmer 
Cricketfield, who was willing to cut as many 
fence-posts as the tree would make, paying ten 
cents apiece for them ; and to make the rest in- 
to cord-wood, either on shares, or to give three 
dollars a cord for it, cutting it himself. 

“ The boy said you wanted some fence-posts, 
yourself,” said the farmer, as Faith made a rapid 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


152 

calculation in her mind of what his offer would 
realize. 

“ I may want some in the spring/’ returned 
Faith,” but there is a dead cedar-tree that will 
make all I need. I think I will accept your 
offer; only you must not delay the work. 1 
don’t want all that rubbish lying round longer 
than can be helped.” 

Farmer Cricketfield promised to do it as fast 
as possible ; and it became a new excitement for 
Charley to watch the process of turning the 
huge tree into fence-posts and cord-wood. 

First removing the branches, the farmer and 
a man he brought with him sawed the massive 
trunk, with a cross-cut saw, into lengths of seven 
feet each. Nearly all of these were split into 
four pieces ; and then as many lengths as possi- 
ble were made from the branches, which usually 
could only be split once. Then the smaller 
pieces were chopped into cord-wood lengths of 
four feet, and piled up ready for measurement. 

Charley’s inexperienced estimate was ex- 
ceeded by the reality. The tree made thirty- 
eight posts and one cord of wood, realizing for 
Faith six dollars and eighty cents. 

She decided on selling it all, as it would be 


AN OVERTHROWN MONARCH. 


153 


a material help toward the July installment on 
the mortgage ; and there were plenty of frag- 
ments and chips left on the ground to supply 
her stove for two or three weeks. She no 
longer needed a steady fire in her room now, as 
spring was so near. The parlor fire kept it 
warm enough, except for an occasional cold 
snap. 


CHAPTER XVI. 


FINANCIAL VICTORY. 

The flood of time is rolling on, 

We stand upon its brink, whilst they are gone 
To glide in peace down death’s mysterious stream, 

Have ye done well ? — Shelley. 

Again Faith was deep in the mysteries of 
adjusting her memoranda, and working out the 
statement of another three months’ account. 
April had dawned in a gentle sunshiny fashion ; 
and, while Nature was struggling, with a fair 
show of success, to reassert her right to bloom 
once more in herb and flower, frost’s grim reign 
was comparatively over. At Faith’s suggestion, 
the Spinning- Jacks had gone for a walk and left 
her to tackle her long rows of figures alone ; al- 
though Mrs. Spinning-Jack had paused to say 
rather dolefully : 

“You had better let me stay and help you, 
Faith. I shall not enjoy my walk, for thinking 
of you sitting here alone, puzzling your brains 


FINANCIAL VICTORY . 


155 


over the burden we have brought upon you. I 
do so dread your finding only disastrous re- 
sults.” 

“There isn’t the least danger of that,” re- 
plied Faith, brightly, “ I may not have made 
much out of you, but I’m sure I’ve not lost any- 
thing.” 

So she had her way about it, and settled 
down resolutely to her undertaking. 

“At least I have nothing to record in the 
way of building or repairs,” she murmured, con- 
tentedly. “ And — let me see — no ! actually I 
have made no purchases for the house-furnish- 
ing either, thanks to Letty’s supplies in that 
line. Now, we will see how the account for our 
living expenses stands.” 

She found that no item was more than three 
times the amount she had used for herself ; and 
often but little more than twice. Fuel and 
light but slightly exceeded the former quanti- 
ties, as the result of keeping up the kitchen fire 
more steadily, and the need of additional lights 
in her guests’ rooms. The articles of food 
varied in some particulars, as the season’s sup- 
plies changed in nature. The statement was as 
follows : 


156 HOW SHE DID IT. 

One hundred and forty-five quarts of milk $7 25 

Fifty-four pounds of beef, thirty-eight pounds of mutton, 

twenty-eight pounds of poultry, ten pounds of sausages. 21 35 

Six pounds of oatmeal 90 

Ten pounds of hominy 50 

Twenty pounds of Indian meal 50 

One gallon of syrup v 50 

T wo packages of macaroni 46 

Two pumpkins 20 

Yeast 25 

T wenty-one pounds of sugar 1 35 

One case of canned tomatoes 2 00 

One barrel of potatoes 2 25 

One bushel of turnips 40 

One-half bushel of onions 60 

One peck of cranberries 40 

Four pounds of tapioca 40 

Eight dozen eggs 2 40 

Thirty-four pounds of butter 8 50 

Seventy-five pounds of flour I 75 

T wo barrels of apples 4 25 

Three tons of coal 17 25 

Six gallons of kerosene 1 20 

Four lamp-chimneys 30 

Oysters and fish 5 45 

Baking-powder 50 

Four pounds of dried currants 40 

Five pounds of lard 60 

One pound of ginger 40 

One jar of mince-meat 75 

Sixteen pounds of coffee 4 00 

Four pounds of tea 2 40 

Soap, condiments, spices, starch 63 

Wages 4 00 


$94 09 


FINANCIAL VICTORY. 


15 7 


Faith stared at these figures in simple amaze- 
ment, into which gradually crept a feeling of 
intense satisfaction. She went over her memo- 
randa, and added up the column several times 
to be sure of having made no mistake, before 
she gave herself up to the relief and delight this 
result inspired. Of course, her discontinuing 
the use of wine at dinner had been an economy 
of some importance. She had felt, however, that 
in her quieter, less energetic life she no longer 
needed it; and had dreaded the example of its 
use to Daisy and Charley. Mrs. Spinning-Jack 
fancied a cup of tea after dinner; and so Faith 
had adopted the fashion of having it, with some 
crackers, or cake, later in the evening. The 
washing-machine had dispensed with the usual 
laundry-bill; but Faith had provided materials 
for desserts that were more expensive than had 
been her custom to use, meaning thus indirectly 
to make amends for the laundry-work they were 
doing. An occasional half-day from a woman 
in the neighborhood, who came to scrub the 
kitchen and wash windows, added another ne- 
cessary item to the account ; for this was work, 
necessary indeed, but altogether out of the 
question for their own doing. 


158 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


Having thus enjoyed real comfort, without 
any material self-denial, it was wonderful that 
four persons should have lived for three months 
on $94.09. There could no longer be any ques- 
tion of their income being sufficient, and even 
of its allowing greater luxury in the future, 
when the winter had found it such an ample 
provision, while including so many extra ex- 
penses. 

After she had silently contemplated this 
comforting state of affairs for some moments, 
Faith turned to look for items of personal ex- 
penditure. These again were very slight, being : 


Knitting worsted 30 

One half dozen handkerchiefs 1 48 

Hair-pins 10 


$1 88 

Then came the statement of the whole. Her 
resources had been: 


Her own income for three months $75 00 

Her balance from last account 67 

Realized from chestnut-tree 6 80 

Mrs. Spinning-Jack’s contribution 87 50 

$169 97 

The house expenses for three months were $94 09 


Her personal expenses for three months were. ... 1 88 

Taxes and interest for three months were 10 75 106 72 


$63 25 


FINANCIAL VICTORY. 


159 


Thus Faith had already in hand more than 
enough to complete her hoped for payment of 
$100 each year on the mortgage; and the inter- 
est would of course decrease all the time. At 
this rate, her installment in July would be at 
least $100 in itself, for the rapid approach of a 
more genial temperature would soon relieve 
her from much of the heaviest item of expense, 
in the consumption of fuel. 

When Mrs. Spinning-Jack returned, and with 
evident nervousness and anxiety came to Faith, 
half dreading to ask the result of her calcula- 
tions, she was puzzled and disheartened for a 
moment at the grave face that met her eager 
glance. 

“ What is it Faith ? ” she asked, falteringly. 
“ Have we fairly eaten you out of house and 
home, after all? I was afraid — ” 

“ No ! ” said Faith, rousing herself up at this. 
“It is I, on the contrary, who am taking a 
mean advantage of your confidence. Look at 
this ! ” placing the account in her hands as she 
spoke. 

Mrs. Spinning-Jack glanced rapidly at the 
final statement, and then exclaimed, eagerly : 

“ Oh Faith ! are you sure ? It’s too good to 


160 HOW SHE DID IT. 

be true! You must have made some mistake 
somewhere ! ” 

“ No ! I am sure of the correctness of my 
figures, but not of my conduct,” returned Faith, 
slowly. “ Think of my letting you do that laun- 
dry-work, and helping me to save and pinch at 
every turn, not for your own comfort, but only 
to throw away so much more on that horrid 
mortgage ! ” 

“ But that just delights me!” said her friend, 
earnestly. “ The work was but fun for us all ; 
and I’m sure we’ve had a real good time doing 
it. As for pinching and saving, I don’t see 
what more we could have had that would have 
increased our comfort.” 

“Well! there shall be no more laundry- 
work!” said Faith, resolutely. 

“ Nonsense ! we like it, and — ” 

“No! no!” interrupted Faith, with a quick 
flush as she spoke. “As long as it is not 
necessary, it shall not be done. I was not 
sure before, and erred on the side of pru- 
dence ; but Anne Gilhooly for a dollar a 
week will be glad to come for two half-days, 
and do the work our way, and under our di- 
rection. She will contrive to have an hour 


FINANCIAL VICTORY. 


161 


or two out of that time for scrubbing and 
cleaning.” 

“ Still—” 

“ It is best every way,” persisted Faith. 
“ As pleasant weather comes, we will not enjoy 
being shut up so much in the house. Our time 
and talents will be more valuable, if you choose 
to put it that way, for out-of-door work, looking 
after the flowers, and such lighter occupations. 
Besides that, our washing would soon be too 
much for us, when we begin to wear thin dresses, 
and have elaborate flounces and furbelows to do 
up.” 

“ Don’t plan so far ahead, you absurd Faith,” 
cried Mrs. Spinning-Jack, laughing in spite of 
herself at this. 

“ Well ! that is settled at all events ! ” replied 
Faith. “ I shall send word to Anne Gilhooly 
to-morrow. Meantime — ” 

“ Can’t we have those chickens now, Miss 
Faith?” asked Charley, who had just caught 
the idea that changes were in contemplation. 

“ Exactly ! You may go on a search for them, 
to-morrow — ” 

“ Oh, I’ve got them already picked out for 
you.” Farmer Cricketfield has some beauties, a 


ii 


1 62 


HOW SHE DID IT : 


splendid young cockerel and five pullets, that 
he’ll sell for five dollars. They’re cheap, too.” 

“That’s just the thing! They will console 
you for resigning the washing-machine to Anne 
Gilhooly.” 

“ Is she going to do it ? I’m sorry for that. 
It was fun ! ” said Charley, regretfully ; but the 
proposed purchase of the chickens soon ab- 
sorbed all his thoughts again. 


CHAPTER XVII. 


spring’s gains and comforts. 

Sweet daughter of a rough and stormy sire, 

Hoar Winter’s blooming child ; delightful Spring ! 
Whose unshorn locks with leaves 
And swelling birds are crowned. 

A. L. Barbauld. 

It is said that the North American Indians 
contrived an odd way of prolonging their pow- 
ers of endurance on a long journey. They would 
on starting carry a heavy log of wood over their 
shoulders, and tramp resolutely along under 
this burden till forced to throw it aside for very 
weariness. Then, refreshed by the relief, they 
would press forward with renewed elasticity of 
step, seeming to leave fatigue behind them with 
the weight which caused it. How far there may 
be any real philosophy in this primitive practice 
is perhaps questionable; but the mind always 
so dominates the body, that its sense of relief, 
however imaginary, becomes physical also. 


164 HOW SHE DID IT. 

Thus our harmonious little party felt the les- 
sening of their tasks, as spring’s timid approach 
relaxed winter’s grim hold upon the world 
around them, with a curious sense of joyous 
freedom. They had never wearied of them at 
the time, or felt any impatience at the bond of 
union thus formed ; still, beginning their novel 
life together in the very depth of winter, and 
having so many discouragements of storm and 
enforced seclusion, it was wonderful that their 
cheery industry never flagged. Now, when 
April’s uncertain smiles beamed upon them 
through watery clouds, tempting alike to idling 
abroad or less vigorous energy within, it was 
an inexpressible comfort to feel that such re- 
laxation was permissible. It was a well-earned 
reward, and they enjoyed it keenly. As the 
days slowly lengthened, and the sun’s more 
vertical rays grew more and more ardent, it 
was a comfort to see expenses, cares, and anxie- 
ties, as well as actual labor, grow lighter and 
easier every day. 

Faith took an absurd delight in relegat- 
ing the stove in her room to the upper re- 
gion of its summer repose, on one of the first 
balmy days, in spite of the treacherous-look- 


SPRING'S GAINS AND COMFORTS . 165 

mg clouds that still hung lowering on the 
horizon. 

“ It don’t make any difference what storms 
come,” she protested, “ at this season, it can’t 
be possible I will need the stove again. The 
parlor fire keeps my room too warm, as it is.” 

The next enterprise was to procure wire net- 
ting enough to inclose part of the slope on the 
east side of the house, as a place of security for 
the chickens. Charley had brought them home 
in great triumph as soon as Faith pronounced 
their welcome ; and he was now so entirely de- 
voted to their care that it was fortunate his 
household duties were growing so much lighter. 
The chickens soon acquired such a home feel- 
ing in consequence of Charley’s sedulous feed- 
ing and caressing, as to be permitted to wander 
at will through the day. They found much 
amusement, chicken fashion, in strolling busily 
over their new domain, picking up many seeds 
and berries which delighted their taste, as well as 
in scratching busily after the insects and worms 
which their instinct taught them were or ought 
to be in the ground. 

It took much patience to put up with “ sweet 
spring’s” very unreliable temper. A bright 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


1 66 

sunny day would tempt them to don light wraps 
and overshoes, and to make a faint beginning 
toward gardening. Leaves and broken twigs 
would be raked into heaps, although in a state 
of sodden dampness yet, and the balmy breeze 
invoked to aid the sunshine in drying them, so 
as to be fit for a bonfire. Then the breeze 
would come with a vengeance, scattering with 
its fierce blast all the heaps into chaos again, 
and presently bringing a dash of rain to restore 
the moisture that had nearly fled before so 
much persuasion. The fair trio would sigh and 
laugh at this perversity of fate, and turn their 
thoughts to indoor arrangements. They would 
summon Anne Gilhooly from her wash-tub or 
ironing-board, and get some windows cleaned, 
while they dusted and put in order one room 
after another, till all were neat and trim as dain- 
ty hands could make them. Thus, in the inter- 
vals of the weather’s caprices, the whole house 
gradually took on its air and garb of summer 
beauty. Faith had always decried the annual or 
semi-annual house-cleaning which so absorbs 
most feminine souls to the mortal terror and 
annoyance of the masculine mind. She believed 
in keeping her whole establishment in comfort- 


SPRING'S GAINS AND COMFORTS. 167 

able array always ; never having any room too 
splendid for use, or too unneat for the inspection 
of the most fastidious eye. While the parlor 
and dining-room fires were kept up, those rooms 
of course could not be entirely arranged ; but 
the others were soon fresh and orderly, with the 
snowy curtains and clear glass that were in such 
charming contrast with the dark wood - work 
and furniture. 

In spite of winter’s distant muttering, the 
days became more and more sunshiny. Here 
and there bits of dry settled ground showed 
themselves, which Faith hastened to clear of all 
rubbish, while she peered anxiously among the 
roots of the grass to see if any tiny green shoots 
were beginning to appear. The deferred bon- 
fires at length came off, and were a glorious 
success, if the flushed faces and merry laughter 
they caused were any token of it. Then, as the 
ground was now quite dry enough for being 
put in thorough order, they all spent many 
bright golden hours in the sweet fresh air 
whose very breathing was a delight. Trim- 
ming the plants and shrubbery, as well as the 
vines and bushes in the fruit-garden was one of 
the first duties ; and soon there crept over the 


1 68 HOW SHE DID IT. 

space where winter had so recently raged and 
stormed an air of cultivation and neatness that 
was eminently satisfactory. One token of 
spring was unwelcome enough. Feebly stray- 
ing along the muddy highways came meager 
cattle, who were glad of even the scanty forage 
they could thus find, after a long dreary winter’s 
sojourn in dark stables, where often their only 
provision was musty hay and wretched corn- 
stalks. Faith looked at them pityingly, yet with 
unyielding defiance. They should not prowl 
over her domains, and destroy her tender plants. 
The gates that had been fastened open for so 
many months, must now be carefully closed at 
night and watched a little in the day-time, too. 
Along the stream at the foot of the hill there 
needed more effectual fencing, as farmer Crick- 
etfield’s cows often waded through the water, 
and looked longingly toward the grassy slope 
above. This was somewhat of a problem to 
Faith at first ; but taking courage from the des- 
perateness of the circumstances, she contrived, 
with Charley’s aid, to intertwine some barbed 
wire among the trees and shrubs along the edge 
of the stream, which made a sufficient defense 
for the purpose. 


SPRING'S GAINS AND COMFORTS. 169 

Thrifty Faith thought twice, however, before 
she could bring herself to incur even the trifling 
expense of buying the barbed wire. The money 
spent on the chickens she had bestowed more 
willingly, knowing how soon it would be re- 
paid and more than doubled ; but the fence 
saved only the bother of watching and driving 
out the cows. It was not a tangible advantage, 
as she looked at it ; and it worried her a little. 

Then a new comfort came to her. There 
was a rough stone-wall half-way down the hill 
which separated her first purchase of land from 
the bit she bought afterwards. It had been left 
standing merely because of the expense of mov- 
ing it; but was always an eye-sore to Faith, 
who was constantly studying various ways of 
getting rid of it. 

One day, farmer Cricketfield accosted her 
as she was pruning a privet-hedge which she 
had made along the road and inside the fence, 
from one gate to the other. 

“Well, now, Miss Arden!” he said, looking 
round with an air of gracious approval. “You 
have made a great improvement hereabout, 
surely.” 

“Do you think so?” answered Faith, smil- 


i ;o 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


ing, as she followed his glance, till it rested on 
the one blot in the landscape, that ugly stone- 
wall, and then sighing impatiently at its im- 
practicable aspect. 

“ Yes, you’ve done a right down smart 
heap of work ! ” replied the farmer. “ 1 see you 
don’t like the look of that wall down there. 
It are rather unsightly, that’s a fact,” glancing 
carelessly across the road as he spoke, but 
watching Faith covertly, too. 

“ I wish I could get rid of it,” began Faith, 
eagerly. 

“ Well, now ! ” with hrs usual drawl. “ Them 
stone would come mighty handy now if I only 
had ’em over at my barn.” 

“ What would you do with them ? ” and 
Faith’s breath came quickly as she caught a 
gleam of welcome hope from the suggestion. 

“ Well, there’s a wet place want’s drainin’ 
and a bit of wall that had oughter be picked up. 
I guess I can get stone enough round at odd 
places on the farm ; but them there’s kinder 
handy.” 

“Would you like to have them? Will you 
buy them?” asked Faith, quietly I 

“ Oh, now ! as to buying ’em ! ” returned 


SPRING'S GAINS AND COMFORTS. i;i 

the farmer. “ I thought may be you wanted to 
get rid of ’em, and I’d take ’em away for you.” 

“ If they are worth moving, they are worth 
paying for,” said Faith, looking straight into the 
man’s face, and fixing his uncertain gaze with 
the cool directness of her’s. 

“ I don’t know ! ” he began, turning away 
with an air of indifference, that was very badly 
assumed. “ I don’t ’spose you’d get a chance 
every day to get rid of them stone ; and they’re 
no use to you any way.” 

“ Not where they are, certainly,” admitted 
Faith ; “ but they could be rolled down the hill 
and laid along the edge of the stream. They 
would make quite a good fence against those 
troublesome cows of yours.” 

‘‘’Taint no fault of theirs, poor creeters ! ” 
said the farmer. “ They don’t know any better. 
If they was boys now, they’d do worse, and 
mean it, too ! ” 

Faith laughed a little at this original view 
of the comparative sinfulness of boys and cows, 
but did not reply. 

“Well! what are you wantin’ now for them 
stone, seein’ you are so keen for makin’ suthin’ 
out of ’em?” asked the farmer, after a pause. 


172 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


“ I don’t know what they are worth ! ” said 
Faith, frankly. “ I might ask — ” 

“ Never you mind about askin’,” interrupted 
the farmer, hastily. “ I tell you I’d give twenty- 
five dollars for them stone if I had ’em over at 
my barn ; but it’ll cost all of that to haul ’em 
out.” 

Faith pondered a moment, and then said : 
“I’ll sell them to you for that, and deliver 
them, too.” 

“But — how?” muttered the farmer, very 
much taken aback at this proposition. 

“ I mean,” said Faith, gravely, though her 
eyes twinkled with subdued fun as she spoke. 
“ I will take twenty-five dollars for the stones, 
and hire some one to take them over to you.” 

“ But it’ll cost a sight! and who’ll you get?” 

“ I don’t know ! somebody.” 

“ Now, see here ! ” exclaimed the farmer, at 
his wit’s end with perplexity. “ No man can 
haul them stone just as I want ’em but myself, 
and—” 

“ Well, I’ll hire you, then ! ” said Faith, look- 
ing up into his face, with a sudden smile of 
amusement. 

“ Lands’ sake ! you’re a clever one at a bar- 


SPRING’S GAINS AND COMFORTS. 173 

gain! Well, see here, now! I’ll give you ten 
dollars for them stone, and haul ’em myself,” 
and the farmer fairly groaned as he made the 
offer. 

Faith shook her head. 

“ Make it twenty ! ” she said, briefly. 
“Twenty! lands’ sake! I couldn’t do it! 
Say fifteen. I vow I can’t give more.” 

Faith paused reflectively. 

“Well, I’ll take fifteen then; but I know it 
won’t cost you five dollars to move them. Only 
it must be done at once, and done neatly, too.” 

Faith kept her countenance with difficulty 
until the farmer was gone. Then she fairly 
laughed with delight as she hastened to tell 
Mrs. Spinning-Jack what a wonderful piece of 
"v grood fortune had come to her. 

O 


CHAPTER XVIII. 


WATER-CRESSES AND WILD FLOWERS. 

Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox 
and hatred therewith. — King Solomon. 

Faith and Mrs. Spinning-Jack had been pot- 
tering about nearly all the morning, half in and 
half out of the house one soft warm day in 
which the moist fragrant earth had seemed to 
petition for the gentle soothing touches with 
which they had consigned to its motherly care 
their first ventures of seeds. Not mere flower- 
seeds, by any means. They were too practical 
to give their first thoughts to anything less use- 
ful than the early radishes and lettuce, the peas 
and beans, which would so delightfully vary 
their supply of vegetables. Now, resting a mo- 
ment on the piazza, and glancing proudly on the 
neat borders where they had patted the earth 
so deftly over the seeds, Faith called out with 
pretended impatience : 


WATER-CRESSES AND WILD FLOWERS. 175 

“You lazy child! havn’t you got lunch 
ready for us yet?" 

Daisy appeared in the open doorway, with 
a somewhat doleful air of discontent, as she an- 
swered, slowly: 

“Oh, yes! it’s ready as much as I know 
how to make it ; but I wish I had some of your 
radishes. I do just pine for the taste of some 
fresh green thing.” 

“Well! I don’t think even our scientific 
planting will furnish the table quite so soon as 
that. Where is Charley ? ” 

“ Oh, he’s off as usual watching farmer Crick- 
etfield load up stones. He has a great notion to 
be a farmer.” 

“ W e won’t wait, then — ” began Faith, but at 
that instant Charley rushed rather boisterously 
up the hill, holding in both hands a great mass 
of dripping sprays of leaves which he eagerly 
presented to Faith, not at all regarding her 
dainty shrinking from the drops of water that 
trickled through his fingers. 

“ Don’t be afraid ! it’s good — the farmer’s 
boy says it’s water -cress. Don’t you know, 
mother, we used to have it in town?” 

“ How delightful ! ” cried Daisy, grasping 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


1 76 

the wet mass rapturously, and peering closely 
into its recesses. 

“ Are you sure it’s water-cress ? ” she asked, 
doubtfully. 

“ Of course it is ! ” cried Charley, indig- 
nantly. “ It hasn’t grown much yet ; but 
there’s lots of it down in the brook.” 

It was almost absurd to see the elation with 
which this simple discovery filled their hearts. 
Dainty and delicate as were the fresh, cool 
sprays of water-cress, making just the addition 
to their lunch that it needed and Daisy had so 
longed for, it was, more than all else, the sense 
of its being a token of Nature’s prodigality, 
rather than the result of their own exertions, 
which won for it its warm welcome. 

Some days later, Charley came in, all dusty 
and disheveled, proclaiming exultingly as he dis- 
played two fresh eggs that he had been crouch- 
ing behind some bushes for more than an hour 
watching the hens laying them. After being 
praised and scolded in a breath for his patience 
and his disordered attire, he was sent off for 
some fresh water-cress before he resumed his 
usual neat appearance for lunch. 

It was now nearly the middle of May, and as 


WATER-CRESSES AND WILD FLOWERS, i;y 

they rose from the lunch-table, Faith asked, so- 
berly: 

“ Do you think it would be safe, Letty, to 
give up the parlor-stove? We haven’t had any 
fire there for a week ; and I’m so tired of looking 
at the dismal thing.” 

“ Let’s clear it away, then ! ” answered Mrs. 
Spinning- Jack. “ I don’t think there is any- 
thing so dreary-looking as a stove without a fire 
in it.” 

“ You know we could sit in the dining-room, 
if there should come a cool evening,” added 
Daisy. 

And so it was done at once. Anne Gilhooly 
had just finished her ironing, and was prepar- 
ing to go home, but good - naturedly stayed to 
empty and polish up the stove, and to help 
Charley carry it to the attic. 

Then, with so many willing hands and such 
light hearts to inspire their active movements, 
the parlor was quickly swept, dusted, and rear- 
ranged. A table with a white cover, and a pretty 
vase of old-fashioned design, soon took the place 
of the stove, whose warm glow had so faithfully 
cheered them through the winter, and which 

now mourned in the attic’s loneliness its depart- 
12 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


178 

ed glory. Fresh lace curtains replaced those 
which showed the soiling touch of fire and 
light’s long reign; and when all the plants were 
carried out upon the piazza, and the bay-window 
was once more accessible, Faith’s favorite rock- 
ing-chair again found its place there. She sat 
down in the pleasant shade of the closed shut- 
ters with a curious sense of returning to the 
first hours of her resting there, nearly a year 
ago. The intervening months of busy work, of 
eager hopes and plans, of mingled triumph and 
discouragements, seemed like a long dream 
from which she was slowly awakening. 

“ What is it, Faith ? ” asked Mrs. Spinning- 
Jack, coming anxiously to her friend’s side, as 
she noted her sudden paleness and air of faint 
bewilderment. 

“ Nothing! ” said Faith, smiling gently as she 
roused herself from her almost stupor. “ I be- 
lieve I was dreaming, and am glad to wake and 
find you are a reality, dear Letty.” 

“ I am a very substantial one, I am sure,” re- 
turned her friend, complacently. “ I was just 
waiting to ask you if it wouldn’t do to set your 
plants in the ground at once. Daisy and Char- 
ley are eager to go at it.” 


WATER-CRESSES AND WILD FLOWERS. i ; 9 

“ I’m half afraid — and yet — there can’t be 
any serious frost as late as this. We’ll risk it, 
anyway.” 

It was far easier to set the plants in the 
ground again, especially with so much assist- 
ance, than Faith had found it to take them up 
in the fall. Many were in full bloom ; and the 
brilliant verbenas and geraniums, as well as the 
rich-hued roses and carnations now gave such 
an added air of cultivation and beauty to the 
scene that more than one passer-by paused to 
admire it. 

“How splendidly everything prospers with 
us,” cried Faith to her friend, a glad light shin- 
ing through tears in her bright eyes. “Winter 
may have been comparatively a trial, when we 
were devoting every thought, every hour, to 
questions of economy and successful manage- 
ment ; and yet it was a happy enough time, even 
then. Now, when life is so much easier and 
brighter, how good it all is ! ” 

“Yes! what with our water-cress and fresh 
e ggs, our growing crops, and our flowers which 
we enjoy as much as if they too were eatable, 
what a truly sylvan life it is — so pure/ so 
healthful ! ” 


l8o HOW SHE DID IT . 

“Just look at that child Daisy!” said Faith, 
turning to greet the young girl who came up 
the steep slope panting and out of breath with 
her haste and ardent efforts. 

“ Are they not lovely ! ” she asked, eagerly, 
as she displayed the rich masses of wild flowers 
and ferns she had been gathering. There were 
sprays of the wild May-apple, with the delicate 
wood crocuses and anemones, besides the pure 
snowy blossoms of the bloodroot and the pretty 
squirrel-cups. 

“ Where did you find them ? I had no idea 
they were out yet ! ” exclaimed Mrs. Spinning- 
Jack and Faith in a breath. 

“ I’ve been watching them for several days,” 
returned the girl, flushing with pleasure at the 
gratification they showed. “ It looked so sad in 
the parlor after your plants were taken out, I 
thought these would make it bright again. 
May I put them in the vases, Miss Faith?” 

“ Of course you may, dear child ! But keep 
some for the dining-table. I will make it your 
especial task from now till snow comes again, to 
keep that always decorated with flowers.” 

“ A charming vocation ! ” said Mrs. Spin- 
ning-Jack, as Daisy flitted away with her flow- 


WATER-CRESSES AND WILD FLOWERS. 181 

ers, very proud and pleased, and yet too shy in 
her sensitive joy to give it other expression 
than one glance of delight toward Faith. 

“Yes, she is a very flower herself, so sweet 
and true in every act and thought. Letty, your 
Daisy has won such a place in my heart that it 
will ache very grievously if she ever leaves 
me again.” 

“We will be only too happy if that need 
never be," returned her friend, pressing her 
hand with grateful warmth as she spoke. 


CHAPTER XIX. 


summer’s joys. 

Nature never did betray 
The heart that loved her.— Wordsworth. 

All green and fair the summer lies, 

Just budded from the bud of spring, 

With tender blue of wistful skies, 

And winds which softly sing. 

Susan Coolidge. 

The sweet leafy month of June found Faith 
and her little household resting in utter content 
beneath its sunny skies. The transition from 
winter to summer had been accomplished, and 
the heavier tasks of that chill season were laid 
aside for the daintier duties of the present. The 
house was thoroughly put in order, and the last 
stove for merely heating purposes, that in the 
dining-room, was banished to keep company 
with its fellows in the attic. Everywhere the 
fluttering of snowy draperies, the faint odor of 
wild flowers, and the grateful shade of closed 


SUMMER'S JOYS. 1 83 

shutters, proclaimed the sweet reign of sum- 
mer’s early birth. 

The grounds, under the care of such taste- 
ful gardeners, assumed a beauty beyond com- 
pare. Here were no blunders of uneducated 
zeal. Every plant was placed with due regard 
for its comparative needs of shade, sunshine, or 
moisture. They were not trimmed into stiff 
primness, or ordered to flourish under condi- 
tions foreign to their desires. Consequently 
they bloomed with wonderful brilliance and 
profusion. The soft, velvety greensward, the 
result of Faith’s liberal sowing of grass and 
clover seed during the previous summer, pre- 
sented now the most cheering suggestions of 
rich soil and careful tending. The dogwood- 
bushes were in bloom even yet, and many 
other wild shrubs, such as the bayberry and 
spice-wood, were throwing out leaves of tender- 
est green, while the fragrant sprays of chestnut- 
blossoms, the sweet linden and birch trees filled 
the air with a perfume that was delicious, 
with its faint yet penetrating delicacy. All the 
generous contributions of vines and bushes 
from Faith’s thoughtful friends, which she had 
planted so hopefully in the fall, were now grow- 


8 4 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


ing, as she thought, with a vigor and earnest- 
ness that was never seen before. Lovely roses, 
sweet sprays of honeysuckle, the lilac and 
syringa blossoms, mingled their more powerful 
cultivated odors with those of the wild woods, 
whose slender branches swayed protectingly 
above them. Hours of busy idleness kept them 
all in a very fairy-land of enchantment, that 
even to Faith was fascinating through her in- 
tense love for Nature’s every phase, while to the 
Spinning-Jacks, its novelty made it a dream of 
new delight every hour. 

It was like living an actual poem. Out-of- 
doors every moment that the weather per- 
mitted, training up the fast - growing vines, 
snipping off every dead leaf or twig that was 
within reach, and keeping the grass clean and 
smooth as if it were a veritable carpet, they 
grew healthy and rosy as they drew long 
breaths of the pure fresh air, and wondered if 
any one was ever so happy and free from care 
before. 

Daisy seriously hunted up Milton’s “ Para- 
dise Lost ” one rainy day, and read aloud his 
description of the “ Garden of Eden ” to her 
mother and Faith, as they sat at work. Putting 


5 UMMER'S JO YS. 1 8 5 

the book down with a long sigh, the girl said, 
almost sadly : 

“ I used to think that was the most beauti- 
ful thing I had ever read, and I even pined for 
the lost Eden ; but now — ” 

“Well! and now?” asked her mother, look- 
ing up, with some surprise in her tone. 

“ It isn’t like our life here on bright days ! ” 
replied Daisy, dreamily. “ When the sun shines 
here, is not our paradise better than the one 
Eve was so foolish as to lose?” 

“ In reality, yes ! ” said Faith, startled at the 
girl’s thought, yet deeply interested, too. “ Eve 
didn’t know how to cherish the joy of her exist- 
ence. She didn’t know of evil, nor guessed at 
the outer gloom of the world, in contrast with- 
which paradise was so bright.” 

“ I suppose if they had lived first in the 
world, and had then been taken into paradise, 
they never would have let any temptation come 
between them and its enjoyment,” said Daisy', 
very thoughtfully. 

“ Those who have had that experience, those 
who have died and are in paradise now, must 
surely feel that,” replied Faith. “ They can 
never wish to return even to their loved ones. 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


1 86 

But remember, Daisy,” she added, in a lighter 
tone, for she did not like to see the shadow that 
crept over the girl’s bright face, “ there were 
no rainy days in paradise, so far as we know. 
They are a trial everywhere, I fear.” 

“ I don’t see what they would have done in 
case of a shower,” said Mrs. Spinning- Jack, 
smiling. “ Even the shelter of the trees would 
not have protected them long.” 

“ They hadn’t any hats or clothes to spoil,” 
returned Daisy, lightly, for youth is ever quickly 
cheered. “ The showers must have been cool 
and refreshing on a hot summer’s day, and aft- 
erward they only had to go into the sun again 
to get their hair dry.” 

“ In our paradise we have to consider the 
question of keeping our clothes dry, to be sure,” 
said Faith, “ but then we have a shelter that 
protects us nicely, and has its own attractions, 
too.” 

In truth, it was well that an occasional 
rainy day did drive them indoors, for the few 
needs that the house presented for care and 
keeping it in due array might have been other- 
wise wofully neglected. There was, however, 
very much less housework to do at this season. 


SUMMER'S JOYS. 


18/ 


Beginning the long days early, and rising with 
the sun itself, getting breakfast was a very tri- 
fling affair, when the preparation of coffee was 
often its only labor. This, with the light, sweet 
bread that Daisy had learned to make so good, 
and the addition of radishes or water-cress, some 
daintily sliced ham or smoked beef, and the fra- 
grant wild strawberries with which the neigh- 
boring fields kept them well supplied, made an 
ideal feast, as delicious as it was healthful. 

It needed but a few minutes for those quick 
fingers to wash and put away the breakfast 
paraphernalia, and then the whole day was be- 
fore them for whatsoever work or amusement 
they should choose to seek. Lunch was a mere 
shadow of trouble. Often it was brought out 
on the piazza, and enjoyed there as a rural re- 
past, indeed. No fire was ever lighted for its 
service. There were always cake, fruit, and 
salads, with cold meat to supply all the hearti- 
est appetite could demand. A glass of milk, or 
of fruit sherbet of which Daisy made many de- 
licious varieties, accompanied these viands, and 
not until the time for preparing dinner were the 
plates and other articles used washed and put 
away. 


1 88 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


The various wild fruits, for gathering which 
so many hands were now ready and eager, 
promised to save no trifling amount of last sum- 
mer’s outlay, when Faith was too busy to seek 
them herself. Already the wild strawberries 
had been procured in quantities sufficient for 
nearly every meal, while Faith’s supply from 
the garden was quite fair, considering it was 
the first year of their production. Thus, the 
items of purchased fruits and made desserts 
scarcely found place in the June record, and al- 
ready the prospect of raspberries, currants, and 
blackberries from their own vines was very en- 
couraging, while the wild ones and the huckle- 
berries would also be plentiful. 

Early peaches were already assuming 
rounded proportions and rosy cheeks that of- 
fered suggestions of new delight at no distant 
day in their perfect flavor. Even pears would 
ripen before many weeks, and the clusters of 
grapes on the new vines, if but few and small as 
yet, would make at least one dainty dessert in 
the early autumn. 

Once in a while, a breath from the outer 
world would come to stir up a languid interest 
in its concerns, or to faintly disturb their re- 


SUMMER'S JOYS. 


pose with remembrance of the money questions, 
which are at the bottom of all earthly discords. 
Faith had few anxieties now of this kind. She 
had learned her ability to pay off her one bur- 
den, unaided, out of her own income, at the rate 
of at least one hundred dollars per year, and 
she knew, under the present arrangement, that 
her sharing her home with the Spinning-Jacks, 
while productive of so much joy and comfort to 
herself, was also absorbing still more rapidly 
the incubus she was learning to smile at, in con- 
fident security of becoming its mistress. But 
her friend had still the burden of anxiously hop- 
ing to realize the insurance, which would give 
so much added ease to her existence. 


CHAPTER XX. 


THE HAVEN WHERE THEY WOULD BE. 

To hope till hope creates 
From its own wreck the thing it contemplates ; 

Neither to change, to falter, nor repent ; 

This is alone life, joy, empire, and victory. 

Shelley. 

Faith sat in her chair in the bay-window, 
leaning back, and looking pale and bewildered. 
Her little writing-table was at her side, and on 
it were spread a number of bills, while several 
freshly written sheets of paper showed a long 
array of figures and calculations. 

It was the last day of June. All her bills 
for this last quarter of her year’s residence in 
her house lay before her, and she had once 
more made a statement of her financial position. 
She had felt no trepidation this time as to the 
result. She knew, with the greatly lessened ex- 
penses of fire and light, and the unwonted sup- 


THE HAVEN WHERE THEY WOULD BE. 19 1 

plies of fruit and vegetables from her own gar- 
den, that even Anne Gilhooly’s wages were 
more than balanced by these advantages, but far 
beyond her most sanguine hopes was the reality. 

There had been no outlay at all for the 
house or its furnishing. For herself personally 
were only these purchases : 


One lawn dress $3 00 

One morning dress I 75 

One pair of slippers 1 00 

One hat-frame 30 


$6 05 

Making up her dress herself, and making 
last summer’s black-lace hat over again, in both 
which acts of skill she was well versed, made 
Faith’s summer outfit of very slight expense, in- 


deed, considering how much it included. 

Then the statement of living expenses was 
as follows: 

One hundred and thirty-seven quarts of milk $6 85 

Fifty-eight pounds of beef, seventeen pounds of veal, twenty- 

five pounds of poultry, eleven pounds of lamb 19 15 

Four pounds of oatmeal 60 

Twelve pounds of hominy 60 

Five pounds of rice 35 

One package of macaroni 23 

Twenty-eight pounds of sugar 1 80 

Yeast 25 

One bushel of potatoes I 00 

T wo pounds of tapioca 20 


192 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


Five dozen eggs 2 5 

Thirty-two pounds of butter 8 00 

Seventy pounds of flour I 65 

Wire-netting and barbed wire 75 

One ton and a half of coal 8 75 

Two gallons of kerosene 4 ° 

Oysters and fish 3 5 ° 

Baking-powder. 5 ° 

Sixteen pounds of coffee 4 00 

Two pounds of tea I 20 

Soap, starch, bluing 1 30 

Spices and condiments 45 

Wages 13 00 

Chickens and corn 5 25 

Asparagus 60 

Ham and smoked beef 3 *5 


$84 78 

This was encouraging, indeed, considering 
that the item of wages, their one great luxury, 
was nearly the largest one in the list. There 
was no need for anticipating any greater ratio 
of expense for the next six months than this, as 
their fragmentary patches of peas, beans, and 
other summer vegetables promised full sup- 
plies throughout the season. 

The statement of the whole was: 

Of resources, Faith’s own income for three 


months $75 00 

Balance from last account 63 25 

Realized from stone-wall 15 00 

Mrs. Spinning-Jack’s contribution 87 50 


$240 75 


THE HAVEN WHERE THEY WOULD BE, 193 


The house expenses for three months were $84 78 

Personal expenses for three months 6 05 

Taxes and interest for three months 10 75 


101 58 

$139 17 

Faith might well feel a moment’s sense of 
overpowering wonder at this result With this 
amount to pay on the principal of the mortgage, 
it would be reduced materially, indeed. She 
even was considering if she might not venture 
to add the sum of twenty dollars and eighty- 
three cents in advance of her next installment of 
income, to cut the mortgage down to just five 
hundred dollars. 

“ There can be no risk,” she thought, as she 
began to recover her half-scattered wits. “ I’m 
sure to save more than that on the next quarter, 
and it keeps reducing the interest so delight- 
fully. Ah, that blessed Letty ! ” 

Almost as the word formed itself in her 
mind, Mrs. Spinning-Jack passed the window 
with an unwonted air of joyousness, waving a 
letter toward Faith very excitedly. 

“A letter for me?” asked Faith, careless- 
ly. “ I did not know you were going to the 
post-office.” 

13 


194 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


“ I did not intend to at first, but the chil- 
dren coaxed me to. No, it’s not for you— it’s 
just the best thing in the world, Faith ! It’s a 
letter from my lawyer, telling me of his success 
in that insurance matter. I’m too delighted ! 
too—” 

She stopped, out of breath with her hur- 
ried speech, while her trembling lips and the 
bright drops that stood in her eyes showed how 
strongly she was agitated by this long-hoped- 
for news. 

“ Oh, how good it is ! ” cried Faith, in genu- 
inely glad sympathy. “ What a relief and com- 
fort for you, dear Letty. I can’t tell you how 
glad I am ! Now you can send Charley to 
school, as you wanted to so much ! ” 

“ And help you with your mortgage,” re- 
plied her friend, eagerly. “ I thought of that 
first of all.” 

“No, no!” interrupted Faith. “You are 
doing too much already — ” 

“ But, just listen, you obstinate soul ! It’s 
as good as if I had got it at first. The court 
decides entirely in my favor ; and the insurance 
company pay s . interest for the time I’ve had 
to wait for it, and — ” 


THE HAVEN WHERE THEY WOULD BE. 195 

“But the lawyer?” interposed Faith. 

“ He has his costs, he says, whatever they 
are, and does not charge me anything for his 
services.” 

“Isn’t that very extraordinary?” asked 
Faith, doubtfully. “ I never heard of such a 
thing before.” 

“ W ell, it must be on account of these ‘ costs ’ ! 
I’m sure I don’t quite know what they are, or 
where they come from ; but it must be all 
right, you know.” 

“Yes! I suppose, being a lawyer, he knows 
what is due him. He wouldn’t fail to take care 
of himself. But, Letty, it’s so delightful — ” 

“Yes! the six months’ interest he sends a 
check for. Here it is, just one hundred and 
fifty dollars. You must pay that on the mort- 
gage, Faith, and — ” 

“ Indeed, I won’t ! ” cried Faith, snatching 
up her balance-sheet triumphantly. “Look 
here, you foolish Letty ! I’ve nearly a hun- 
dred and forty dollars for the mortgage left 
over.” 

“ Impossible ! let me see ! are you sure it’s 
right?” 

Seeing, at a glance, how truly this was a 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


196 

fact, Mrs. Spinning-Jack laughed half hysteric- 
ally as she said : 

“ Really, Faith ! it’s a pity, with our genius 
for managing, that we should have the burden of 
added riches thrust upon us. What will we do 
with our superfluity of income, after the mort- 
gage is paid off?” 

“ Oh ! money always flies fast enough, be it 
much or little,” said Faith ; “ but the mortgage 
is being cared for sufficiently without your add- 
ing this charming windfall. You will need it 
for the children as well as yourself. You’ve 
stinted yourselves too much in personal ex- 
penses ; and then, Charlie’s outfit for school — ” 

“ He can’t go to school before October, so 
there’s no use getting him ready now,” inter- 
rupted Mrs. Spinning- Jack, positively. “ No, 
Faith ! unless you want to turn us out-of-doors, 
you must come to my terms. It is but fair that 
we should pay for our shelter and home comfort, 
as well as for actual food and warmth, as long 
as we are able to. While we are all here, you 
must let me pay at least two hundred dollars 
a year more. That will still leave two hun- 
dred for our clothing, which is more than we 
need.” 


THE HAVEN WHERE THEY WOULD BE. igy 

“ But Charley’s schooling- will take — ” be- 
gan Faith. 

“ That will not make any material differ- 
ence,” persisted Mrs. Spinning-Jack. “ I don’t 
know yet what it will cost, and it’s three months 
off. Let us leave that question till then. Mean- 
time you must take this check, and apply it to 
the mortgage ; and then we’ll go on with our 
old life, unless you want to get rid of us.” 

“ Of course I don’t,” said Faith, “ but at 
least we must live more comfortably ; we must 
have a servant.” 

“ Oh, don’t ! ” cried Daisy and Charley, in 
one breath, who came up just in time to catch 
the last words. “There’ll be no comfort any- 
where if you have a servant.” 

“ And you can’t, any way, till I go to 
school,” added Charley, triumphantly. “ I dare 
say you’ll want one then ; but I’ve got the only 
room you could put her in, and I don’t want 
to give it up, either.” 

“What would be the good of a servant?” 
asked Daisy, more gently. 

“To do the cooking and all the work, you 
foolish child ! ” said Faith, much amused at the 
girl’s air of perplexity. 


198 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


“ But do you think you could find one 
who would do things the way we like to have 
them?” urged Daisy. “You always said you 
liked my cooking so much ! why must I give 
it up to a stranger?” 

“ My dear girl ! no servant could do as well 
as you do, of course, but we could teach her ; 
and you’ll be glad, when the hotter days come, 
not to have such work to do.” 

“Well!” said Daisy, contentedly. “Wait 
till that day comes then. I’d rather do the 
work, as you call it, even if I didn’t enjoy it as 
I do ever so much, than be bothered trying to 
teach a stupid servant, and eating all sorts of ill- 
cooked rubbish in the mean time.” 

And so they all felt upon due consideration. 
It was unanimously decided that they would 
take whatever added comfort their increased 
incomes would permit, without wasting their 
means on a mere regard for appearances in 
which no real benefit could be found. Anne 
Gilhooly could come oftener; perhaps for an 
hour or two every day, or whenever they had 
anything for her to do, but they would not take 
into their ideal existence any new and discord- 
ant element. There were many higher enjoy- 


THE HAVEN WHERE THEY WOULD BE. 199 

ments, many pleasures that were refining and 
elevating, which were better worth securing 
than mere immunity from the daily tasks in 
which they had all taken such delight. 

In the future, when Charley was at school, 
and winter’s dark reign had recommenced, the 
question might be reconsidered ; but, till then, 
it seemed needless to entertain it. 


CHAPTER XXI. 


GOLDEN DREAMS. 

The silence that accepts merit as the most natural thing in the 
world is the highest applause. — Emerson. 

The next morning Faith walked demurely 
into Mr. Cherubino’s house (he was the friend 
that had lent her the money represented by her 
mortgage), and with shining eyes and lips that 
vainly tried not to quiver with the mirthful 
content that bubbled up from her heart, she 
said quietly as she entered his presence: 

“ I’ve come to pay the interest.” 

“ Ah ! ” he said, as he warmly shook hands 
with her, and searchingly scanned her face, 
whose air of suppressed agitation at once inter- 
ested him. “You are very prompt,” he went 
on, reassuringly. “ Don’t you know you have 
thirty days’ grace in paying interest ? ” 

“ Thirty days’ disgrace, I should call it, if I 
had the money ready, or could possibly get it.” 


GOLDEN DREAMS. 


201 


As she spoke she laid a little package of 
bills before him, which he opened, and gravely 
counted. Then, turning to his writing-desk, 
and taking up a pen, he said : 

“ I will give you a receipt.” 

“Wait!” said Faith huskily, as she placed 
another roll of bills on the desk, w’hile her voice 
trembled so with triumphant gladness that she 
could scarcely control its utterances. “ You 
know I undertook to make another payment 
on the principal.” 

Mr. Cherubino silently took the money, 
counted it, and laid it down again. 

“ Anything more ? ” he asked dryly, in a 
gruff, cynical tone that contrasted oddly with 
the kindly glance of his dark-gray eyes. 

“You aggravating man!” cried Faith, all 
smiles and tears now in her sudden revulsion of 
feeling as she threw off her assumed air of com- 
posure. “ I thought you’d be at least sur- 
prised.” 

“ I’m never surprised at anything a woman 
does who has half a soul and will of her own. 
If you had brought the whole amount and a 
few thousands over which you wanted me to in- 
vest for you, I should only have w'ondered if 


202 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


you had found a mine, or had learned the secret 
of turning your rocks into diamonds/’ 

“ I wish I had ! ” returned Faith, laughing. 
“ But don’t you want to hear how I have ac- 
complished this?” 

“ Of course I do. When you bring me 
more than a whole year’s income in one pay- 
ment, I must naturally be curious to know what 
you have been living on all this time. You look 
fat and hearty enough, I’m sure.” 

In a few words Faith gave him an outline 
of her having combined forces with the Spin- 
ning-Jacks, and the surprising results of the 
experiment. 

“ So ! ” commented Mr. Cherubino, in his 
dry, emphatic way. “You find you can live 
comfortably alone on one hundred and fifty dol- 
lars a year, without including personal expenses, 
and that four of you can live still more com- 
fortably on three hundred and fifty dollars. 
Now, have you carried the calculation far 
enough to ascertain how many inmates you 
must have to live on nothing?” 

Faith’s cheery, ringing laugh at this was 
irresistible, and he joined in it heartily for a 
moment. 


GOLDEN DREAMS. 


203 


“ It really does seem that such a point 
might be reached,” Faith said presently. “ I 
do think the gain has been, more than anything 
else, in our having kept no servant. Besides 
their wages, they always waste as much as they 
consume ; and then they misuse the most expen- 
sive materials just because they do not under- 
stand their value or capabilities. You see with 
us there was never the least waste. We could 
have many delicacies that would otherwise 
have been beyond our means, because we used 
only as much as we needed, and had no frag- 
ments to throw away. I noticed that especially 
when I got the chickens. Most people have 
enough refuse from the kitchen to feed a dozen 
or two ; but I have had to buy corn for them.” 

“ They ought to pick up bugs and things at 
this season,” said Mr. Cherubino. 

“ So they do ; but still they keep us sup- 
plied with eggs now, and I can afford to be gen- 
erous. We have even one brood of nine little 
ones already, while another hen is doing her 
best to hatch out thirteen.” 

“ I shall come over soon and feast on 
broiled spring-chicken,” replied Mr. Cherubino, 
gravely. 


204 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


“ Indeed, you won’t ! ” cried Faith, indig- 
nantly. “ Do you suppose I would have the 
little things killed that have learned to eat so 
prettily out of our hands?” 

“Not while they are little, certainly ; but 
you or some one will have to eat them one of 
these days, you know. I never heard of chick- 
ens dying of old age.” 

Faith shook her head, and declared the day 
of doom for her feathered pets must at least be 
far off ; and then took leave of Mr. Cherubino, 
returning home with heart and purse equally 
light and unburdened. 

Encountering Mrs. Spinning - Jack some 
hours later, as she came in from a walk with 
Daisy, Faith exclaimed : 

“ Letty ! I’ve been thinking over our affairs, 
and some improvements have occurred to me.” 

“ Canst thou 

“ ‘ Gild refined gold, or paint the lily, 

Or throw a perfume on the violet?’ ” 

asked her friend, mildly. 

“ Are we so near perfection already ? ” re- 
turned Faith. 

“ I really don’t see where improvement is 


GOLDEN DREAMS. 


205 


possible,” replied Mrs. Spinning-Jack. “Take 
my advice, Faith, and don’t try to work mira- 
cles.” 

“ I am glad you are so content,” persisted 
Faith, “but Fve made an odd discovery.” 

“And what is that?” 

“ It seems Anne Gilhooly is a widow, in- 
stead of being a member of my own honorable 
fraternity, and she has a daughter.” 

“You don’t say so! and this daughter — ” 

“ Is a bright, rosy little lass of about a dozen 
summers.” 

“ How unlike her gaunt, hard-favored par- 
ent ! ” murmured Mrs. Spinning-Jack, sotto voce. 

“ Some little bird must have whispered to 
Anne Gilhooly that fortune has been smiling 
on us ; it could never have been the inspiration 
of her own genius ; and she mildly suggests 
that her Rosianna is a handy child, if we had 
any ‘ chores ’ we could employ her in doing.” 

“ But we havn’t,” began Mrs. Spinning- 
Jack. 

“Just wait! It was all very well to have a 
little active occupation when we were so much 
shut up in the house during the winter ; but I 
can’t bear to see our pretty Daisy, in her dainty 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


r 


206 

fresh muslin dresses, poking about the kitchen, 
getting dinner.” 

“ But she likes it.” 

“Yes! but that isn’t the question. The 
days are so long now that dinner is over an 
hour before sunset, and Daisy spends some very 
sultry hours in the kitchen, which would be 
more pleasantly passed with us on the piazza or 
in the summer-house. Besides that, it is just 
the hour for callers, who defer going out till the 
heat of the day is past, and Daisy must not be 
denied to them again, as she was yesterday.” 

“ She don’t care in the least to see people,” 
objected Mrs. Spinning-Jack. 

“ She ought to, then,” returned Faith arbi- 
trarily. “ I don’t think it is worth while to 
have Rosianna here all day. Getting breakfast 
in the cool of the morning is a mere pastime, 
and so is lunch. I propose to have Rosianna 
come to get dinner under Daisy’s direction, and 
to have her clear up the breakfast and lunch 
dishes while it is cooking. Then, after dinner, 
before she goes home, she can put everything in 
order again, and leave the kitchen in readiness 
for our getting breakfast the next morning.” 

“ But this will cost something ! ” 


GOLDEN DREAMS. 


207 


“ Not so much ! She’d gladly do it for fifty 
cents a week ; and as dinner is the one meal for 
which it is difficult to make exact calculations, 
her using the fragments for her own will not be 
an appreciable expense. It will be a loss to the 
chickens rather than to us.” 

“ Oh, they can spare it ! ” returned Mrs. 
Spinning- Jack. “ Really, Faith, this sounds very 
plausible ; but it wouldn’t do to keep it up. 
I’m afraid our prosperity has turned your brain, 
and inspired visions of inexhaustible wealth.” 

“ I only mean to do it for the summer,” said 
Faith. “ When Charley has gone to school in 
October, we will have a trifle less to do in the 
way of cooking, and will need to be more eco- 
nomical again. And then, when the days are 
shorter, Rosianna could not go home alone late 
in the evening.” 

“Well! we’ll try it for three months, then ; 
but Faith, you mustn’t grow lukewarm about 
the mortgage. Remember that is to be our 
first consideration.” 

“ If the fates don’t turn against us that will 
be paid off in two years more, at the furthest. 
Our interest grows less, too, you know, as we 
reduce the principal.” 


208 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


“ And then? you have surely carried your 
plans beyond a mere trifle of two years ! ” 

“ Yes ! I have indeed looked into a peace- 
ful future still further on/’ cried Faith, with an 
emphatic nod of her head. “ You need not 
smile in that provoking way, Letty! but I see 
in those restful happy days, only two years off, 
a nice bright girl, perhaps Rosianna herself, 
whom we will have drilled meantime into just 
the helpful servant we want, ever at hand to do 
all we do not choose to do ourselves, and never 
in the way when we prefer her absence. And 
then, our Charley will be home again. Two 
years at school are enough for a bright boy like 
him. Then I shall begin building again.” 

“Building? Will you set us off in a sep- 
arate establishment?” 

“ No, I can never spare you again ! But I 
shall add a room outside the parlor and library, 
perhaps two of them if I feel inclined to restore 
the library to its former dignity; and then 
Charley can have better quarters than those he 
has so patiently put up with so far.” 

“ It’s all Charley ! ” cried Daisy’s voice at 
this moment, as she came up to them. “ Have 
you no plans for me?” 



GOLDEN DREAMS. 


209 


“You are alwa)^s in our hearts ! ” answered 
Faith, drawing the girl closely to her side. 
“ How can we ever have a plan or thought that 
does not include you?” 

“ And what is it you are planning for ? ” 
asked Daisy; “the millennium?” 

“ The day when our mortgage will be paid 
off and Charley’s school-days are over,” said 
Faith, with a tremor of strong emotion in her 
voice. “ Will not that be a millennium of joy 
and release to us all ? ” 

“ But there must be no servant ! ” cried 
Daisy willfully. 

“You still love your household duties?” 
asked her mother. 

“ Better than anything ! ” returned the girl, 
with eager enthusiasm. “ When you have a 
headache, and I bring you a cup of fragrant tea 
and a dainty bit of toast, with some violets or a 
rosebud by the side of your plate, isn’t it a thou- 
sand times better than any servant could do? 
Would you enjoy it as much, or could I pa- 
tiently see her stupid blundering over the task 
that belongs to me ? And when I have studied 
up some new dessert, or given my mind to 
cooking more perfectly some toothsome dish 
14 


210 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


that we all like, is it not beyond the mere hired 
labor of a servant, however skillful ? No ! when 
you prefer such ministerings to mine, when you 
let a hireling come to take my vocation from me 
and stand in my place of honor, you will — I be- 
lieve it would go near to breaking my heart ! ” 
added Daisy, after a slight pause, her voice 
breaking suddenly from its eager tones into 
those of pathetic entreaty. 

“You dear child ! ^ said Faith, profoundly 
moved by the girl’s loving appeal. “ Don’t you 
know we can never like even the most skillful 
servant’s work as well as the result of your own 
tender ministrations. But the mere drudgery 
at least — ” 

“ I have never found any ! ” interposed 
Daisy, eagerly. “ But if you let me still per- 
form the tasks I take such pride in, you may 
give Anne Gilhooly all the drudgery, as you 
call it. I don’t covet scrubbing, for in- 
stance.” 

“ That’s just because you don’t know how ! ” 
cried Charley, tauntingly, as he strolled up, 
holding a large cup of chestnut - leaves, deftly 
pinned together with thorns, and overflowing 
with wild raspberries, whose stains were plenti- 


GOLDEN DREAMS. 


2 1 1 


fully bestowed on his fingers as well as on his 
lips. 

“ Oh, how good ! ” exclaimed Daisy raptur- 
ously. “ We’ll have them for dessert with cream.” 

“Yes, that’s a good enough way!” replied 
Charley condescendingly, “but, I say, Daisy, 
there’ll be some splendid blackberries in about 
a week, ripe enough to make a jolly pudding. 
Couldn’t you make one ? ” 

“ I never did — ” began the girl doubtfully. 

“ I’ll tell you,” said Faith, “ the good old- 
fashioned way. Letty, do you remember it? 
For our little party, Daisy, take a large cup of 
stale bread-crumbs, just moisten them with a lit- 
tle milk and twd beaten eggs, add your black- 
berries, two cups full if you can get them, a 
pinch of salt and some spices if you choose, 
and tie it loosely in a floured cloth. Boil it an 
hour, and make a sauce of butter and sugar, 
with some wine. It is really a very delicate and 
satisfactory way of using both huckleberries and 
blackberries, especially when they are not fully 
ripe.” 

“ Good ! ” pronounced Charley, who had 
listened intently. “ Then I can pick ’em a day 


sooner. 


212 


HOW SHE DID IT. 


They all laughed at this, and so the discus- 
sion ended for the moment, but Faith never for- 
got the glimpse Daisy had given them of her 
pure loving heart, so full of guileless zeal to 
serve those who were dear to her, so sensi- 
tively jealous of all other ministering to their 
daily comfort. 

Shall we thus leave them, having shown 
how Faith, indeed, carried out her determina- 
tion ? How the problems of securing a satisfac- 
tory shelter, and of living in comfort on her 
seemingly insufficient income, were trium- 
phantly solved ? 

Even Lady Disdain yielded ungrudgingly 
her meed of praise when she came with Mrs. 
Nymscywitch to admire the wonderful meta- 
morphosis one short year of skilled manage- 
ment had wrought. That wild mass of rugged 
rocks had become a very Eden of beauty and 
bloom ; and best of all were the cheery, happy 
faces which greeted their approach with such 
cordial smiles of welcome, speaking eloquently 
of the contented hearts that knew neither ache 
nor ungratified longing. 


THE END. 


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